“Joe Maddon gets there every day at 4 o’clock just for the record.”

And Joe had a witty response back.

#Rays Maddon, in response to Bobby V comments, came out to media session + said: “Sorry I’m late, I just got here.” Also, it was “amusing”

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) September 5, 2012

When asked about Valentine’s comment, Maddon said, “I’m very flattered by the whole thing. I think it’s very amusing, that’s all. Seriously, that’s all. I’m amused by the moment, and it’s flattering someone would include me in that conversation.”

When asked what time he arrives each day, Maddon said it varies depending on the day then added, “I’m here in plenty of time.”

Whatever Maddon does, it works. When you’re winning, it doesn’t matter what time you get to the ballpark. When you’re having a season like Valentine and the Red Sox are having… I don’t think so.

From wars of words to punching walls, Sean Rodriguez named the Durham Bulls player who upset him enough to make him punch a wall and break his hand: the recently-promoted Dane De La Rosa. Here’s what Rodriguez had to say on the situation to Marc Topkin.

“How do you disrespect somebody without touching them? You say things or talk in a manner that’s very disrespectful,” Rodriguez said. “In a baseball clubhouse people do that all the time. But when you turn to ask somebody, ‘Are you being serious right now?’ the way someone’s tone is, the way they’re talking to you and they either just smirk or ignore you leads you to believe one or the other, right?

“So instead of me normally doing what I normally would have done in the past, which is basically just to go and do a lot of things to him, I tried to exert my energy and frustration elsewhere to try to let it go. Bad job of trying to deal with it.”

Rodriguez said that the fight started based on words De La Rosa said about a song being played in the clubhouse. This is nothing but a huge mistake on Rodriguez’s part that he let his emotions get the best of him in a situation that should not have escalated nearly as much as it did and I don’t even like him named De La Rosa because whatever happened, it was Rodriguez’s fault. Here was De La Rosa’s response.

“One of my biggest things is being good to teammates and being good to coaches. Obviously I didn’t really mean to offend anybody. What happened is what happened. We haven’t talked. Just getting up here, I just want to feel things out first, then definitely talk to Joe (Maddon) and clear things up. That’s pretty much all I’ll say for now.”

Rodriguez and De La Rosa are now both in the major league clubhouse, and hopefully we won’t hear anything more about this.

No more fights, but quite a bit more Rays news to go. More news on De La Rosa- he talked to Topkin about how the $75,000 he’s going to make by being on the major league roster the rest of the season is going to make a big difference to him as he’s getting married on November 3rd.

Topkin also talked about how Jeff Niemann got good news from Dr.  James Andrews and may come back before the season is through. At this point, anything he gives the Rays is a bonus as their rotation has been great all year. There was also more definitive news on another Rays starter, Alex Cobb. Roger Mooney tweeted that Joe Maddon said that Cobb will have three starts the rest of the season. Mooney also suggests that Chris Archer will probably start the times through the rotation where Cobb does not, although if Niemann is healthy, we could see the Rays put Archer’s electric arm to use in relief.

And finally, Double-A Montgomery Biscuits manager Billy Gardner has won the Southern League Manager of the Year award after guiding the Biscuits to the playoffs with a 38-31 record in the second half of the season. That was especially impressive as he lost his starting middle infielders Hak-Ju Lee went down with an oblique injury and Tyler Bortnick was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Congrats to Gardner, who is in his 6th year managing the Biscuits, on a job well done and good luck to Montgomery in the postseason.