The San Diego Padres and Anaheim Angels have likely provided MLB's new Vice President of On-Field Operations Bob Watson with his first disciplinary case. During a Spring Training exhibition game the two teams became entangled in not one, but two, brawls.

Six players had been ejected by the second inning of Saturday's exhibition game between the Padres and Angels. From all reports, Aaron Sele was the instigator of the entire affair. Two-thirds of the way through the top of the first he hit Ryan Klesko with a pitch. Klesko then charged the mound, which led to the first bench-clearing brawl, although Klesko was the only player ejected after the skirmish.

The AP has since reported that due to comments made by Phil Nevin, Klesko believes that he upset Sele with his home run trot in a June 17th game last season, so Sele planned to throw at him if they met in Spring Training. Of course Sele has not admitted to this rumored long-standing grudge and claims the HBP was unintentional. He has even made comments to the effect that Klesko was justified in charging the mound, if he thought it was intentional.

Despite the somewhat interesting back-story, the incident would not be nearly as outrageous if it ended here. However in the bottom of the 1st San Diego pitcher Bobby J. Jones took it upon himself to retaliate for the perceived insult to his teammate and reportedly brushed Troy Glaus back with a pitch up and in. Consequently Glaus advanced on the mound and the benches cleared again with Klesko now fighting in his street clothes. When this round of sparring ended, San Diego Manager Bruce Bochy and four players including Glaus, Jones, Nevin, and Scott Spiezio were all ejected.

Sele throws in the high-80's and Jones' fastball really only reaches the mid-80's, but throwing at a player is a serious matter. However, charging the mound is also a bad idea as you risk injury to yourself and any other players involved in a potential brawl, as well as additional punishment by the league for misconduct. The fact that Klesko went back onto the field to participate in the second brawl after he had been ejected could mean at the very least a hefty fine and potentially a serious suspension that could impede his team's ability to compete at the start of the season. The Padres are a club with a lot of upside, but they will need many cards to fall their way in order to earnestly hold onto their chance to win the division.

The suggestion by the owners that players not be paid during suspensions is one of the few with which I don't have fundamental problems. A player who involves himself in activities that lead to suspensions costs his team money and deserves to lose pay for that. The trouble with altering the current system is that it puts additional responsibility on the people in charge of meting out the punishment to be particularly fair. I also think that if pay is lost during suspensions, then there should be no additional fines.

I am not privy to the particulars that lead to Bochy's ejection, but managers who involve themselves in this type of clash should be held to an even higher level of accountability than the players. As authority figures, their position behooves them to restrain themselves from doing anything that could have negative consequences for the organization. Emotional actions on the part of these individuals are entirely selfish.

Watson has said that he wants to increase the severity of the consequences for on-field misconduct, so this should provide us with an interesting preview of his in-season rulings. However, I must confess that I am unfamiliar with the disciplinary procedures as applied to Spring Training behavior. I will keep you posted as to any suspensions or fines.

I'm going to wrap today's article up a bit early. In the next day or two, I will likely report on some of the recent spring training injuries. Athlon Sports, in their annual baseball preview, has run an On-Deck Article for the last few years with humorous predictions based upon the personalities and peccadilloes of players, managers, executives, and teams. This year the magazine did not run the article, and we missed it so much that we've decided to fill the gap with a similar piece. I'm not entirely sure when I'm going to have time to run this, but if any readers want to send in suggested fictional predictions I will sort through the responses and include the best with credit to the authors.

Example: October 15th - MLB Owners decide that they are better served by rotating the owners of the low revenue teams than by contraction. They rename Baseball Expos, LP to Despair and Doubt, LP and make out a schedule so that every five years the company owned by the 29 other organizations will purchase in rotating order the Devil Rays, Expos, Marlins, Royals, or Twins in order to maximize the tax benefits for everyone.

I will of course also be writing real predictions for division finishes along with reviews of all the teams by division in the week or two before the season starts.