(n)th Box Score Of The Year

I don't even care. Nobody cares. This is stupid.

Here's the actual box score. Things you need to know:

Things available for you to know:

• Jason Vargas had another shutout appearance, establishing himself as the early favorite to win out as the fifth starter. Should the numbers matter? Some, but not much - over small samples against varying competition in the ST environment, the relationship between performance and statistics is flimsy at best. However, they do matter a little, at least in that Wak would have a hard time giving the #5 job to a 10.00 ST ERA over a 2.00 ST ERA. And it's not like ST performance is completely random. So Vargas does have the edge here. Throw in the fact that we're hearing he looks "calm" while Doug Fister looked nervous, and that doesn't hurt.


• Luke French and Garrett Olson also think they're competing for the spot, which is just darling.


• Felix Hernandez threw a simulated game today and looked good. Rob Johnson caught the simulated game and looked less good.


• Jose Lopez played third again, of course, and while he couldn't handle a pop-up hit into swirling winds, he did apparently manage to turn a backhand play, which is good, because if he weren't able to turn a backhand play, that would be bad. MGL has it right - if the M's choose to move ahead with this Lopez/Figgins arrangement, they are presumably doing so because they think it's in their best interests, and we simply aren't sufficiently informed to criticize their call. We can question it, and we can talk about it, but we can't arrive at any unique conclusions.
  


• Things I noticed from today's PITCHfx data: both Mike Koplove and Steven Shell get crazy tail on their fastballs. Their embarrassing, womanly fastballs. Levale Speigner gets a lot of movement, too, but he actually has some concept of what "90" feels like, so he's far too talented to belong in this bullet point.


• More action at shortstop for Matt Tuiasosopo. Matthew and I talk about this in the podcast (which will go up tomorrow), so I don't want to spoil very much, but keep an eye on this. Tui hasn't played short since 2006, and it's never been considered a long-term position possibility of his, but by and large he's been receiving positive reviews so far, so if he can handle it, that's meaningful. Says Wak:
  

  
  "[Tui] gives us some offensive plusses compared to some of the other guys (vying for utility roles) so it's going to be a big key for him."
  
  

  
  I like Jack Hannahan, but I also like offense, so there's nothing wrong with the team gathering information and looking to increase its options.


• Franklin Gutierrez is fine, in case you were aware that he wasn't a week ago.