Wells and Thomas have been scuffling, agreed, but no blame goes to Glaus. His numbers for the season are really really really good.

Well, it's kind of impressive when you can add almost a run and a half to your ERA and still end up at 2.37.

I'm not going to say that one happened because of the other, but this makes the decision to use Janssen in Tuesday's 12-1 win look even worse.

Ken Rosenthal has a couple of Jays notes in his latest column:

"The Dodgers did exercise restraint on other pitching fronts last off-season. They declined to trade right-hander Brad Penny and right fielder Andre Ethier to the Blue Jays for right fielder Alex Rios, according to major-league sources, and also passed on sending right-hander Chad Billingsley and Ethier to the Devil Rays for center fielder Rocco Baldelli."

"For all the talk about the availability of Troy Glaus, Blue Jays G.M. J.P. Ricciardi says he has yet to receive a single call on the third baseman. "We're not looking to move him," Ricciardi says. "We've got a good team not only this year, but next year. He's a big part of what we're trying to do." Glaus, 30, has a full no-trade clause. He is signed for $12.75 million next season and holds an $11.25 million player option for 2009 . . ."

"The Blue Jays are among the clubs that like right-hander Daniel Cabrera, but the Orioles probably would not trade him unless they received a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in return . . ."

Do we really want a head case in Daniel Cabrera?

While the fans were probably unhappy with Janssen's performance I think its a larger issue of the fans upset with a team that seems to be largely under achieving.

This team seems to lack the focus or whatever it is to put together any sort of a respectable win streak. So basically they're a .500 team. I think fans deserved better.

One bad day and the fans boo?

Could it be that most fans at sporting events are basically just lab rats in Skinner boxes, responding to the stimulus of the moment? Yes, Janssen proved he was human. He had a terrible outing. But this is not part of a larger pattern warranting jeering. Some tepid applause upon his exit would have shown class and an acknowledgement for what he had accomplished prior to last night. But you need more than a handful of functioning synapses to make that nexus.

While I'm airing peeves, at what point, if ever, will fans be able to distinguish a lazy flyball to medium center field from a deep flyball that looks headed for the seats? Why are both cheered with equal vigor? And in last night's game, why was their so much cheering when Stairs scored the team's 4th run on a sacrifice fly? At that point, the Dodgers were more than happy to trade runs for outs. That particular sac fly was bad, not good. Do fans not know this? Is a run a food pellet, regardless of context?

I'm done with the soapbox. Someone else can have a turn.

Booing Janssen is bad enough, but frankly, I'm not happy with the crowd booing Wells either. Yes, he's been hugely disappointing this year, but does anyone think for a moment he's not trying? Has anyone suggested he's been less than 100% professional in how he's carried himself this year or throughout his Jays career? Does anyone believe getting booed is going to motivate him to do better? From my perspective, booing in baseball represents a condemnation of character, not of performance; it says, "You, personally, suck." It's an extreme measure, not the first thing you pull out of the arsenal when you see something on the field you don't like.

Could it be that most fans at sporting events are basically just lab rats in Skinner boxes, responding to the stimulus of the moment?

Generally, yes, but Toronto baseball fans are some of the worst I've seen in regard to this sort of thing -- booing a player for one bad performance following numerous stellar ones, unable to tell a lazy fly from a deep drive, clapping only when the sound system tells them to, generally ignorant about anything nuanced (and most of the best things in baseball are nuanced). With stellar exceptions (many of them regular posters here), crowd behaviour at Toronto home games is often embarrassing.

Everyone blames the SkyDome/Rogers Center for being a lousy place to watch a game, but frankly, the deadness inside that stadium comes from the fans much more than the facility. Olympic Stadium was a mausoleum near the end, but 10,000 Montreal fans made more noise and had more life and fun than 30,000 Torontonians who stand up only to applaud a home run or go get another beer.

 A friend of mine was at the game years ago when Dave Stewart, then with Oakland, threw a no-hitter against the Jays. The couple behind him got up and left in the fifth inning, saying, "This is a terrible game. The Blue Jays don't even have a hit yet."

Okay, I'm done on the soapbox, too. Who's on deck?

Some fans just aren't happy unless the team goes 162-0 and wins each game by at least ten runs. It doesn't help that Toronto fans don't seem to understand a lot of baseball - I've seen plenty of booing at close, but correct, calls that went against the Jays. They'll boo if an opposing player gets a hit, or a walk... exactly what are you booing? The lack of perfection?

Anyway. The only justification for booing Casey Janssen at this point in the season would be if he'd stopped to beat the bat boy on his way to the dugout. Even then, it'd be dicey - what's the bat boy done for us lately?

...claimed that in the early 90s, Red Sox fans would have booed Roger Clemens during his Cy Young season, if he had had one bad game.

Yes, and that worked out well for the Red Sox in the long run, didn't it? Two Cy Youngs in Toronto, one in New York, one in Houston.

Despite what Thomas said about booing yesterday,  this is one of the reasons it is lame to do it. Because it encourages others who don't know about the game to boo everything, even things like a sacrifice fly.

Also, it's obnoxious. Janssen has owned this season and had one very ugly night.  Let's boo!  Make him feel like complete garbage!  And Vernon knows he is sucking right now, he doesn't need the drunk dude in the Red Sox hat, trying to look cool for his friends, to tell him.

Also, the anonymity of booing.  The majority wouldn't have the guts to stand in front of Frank Thomas and tell him, to his face, exactly what they think of him.

Do we really want a head case in Daniel Cabrera?

GMs - I abasolutely HATE this - almost always overrate the guys who own your team.  In this case, since Cabrera owns the Jays, Ricciardi wants (apparently, and let's not put too much stock into what Rosenthal says) to bring him aboard, as if he never watches him pitch agains tthe other 12 AL teams.

Two other things. Why was Janssen left in for so long when it was pretty clear after about the 2nd or 3rd hitter he faced, that he had nothing last night?

And re. Cabrera.  That dude can pitch.  Actually, scratch that.  That dude's arm can pitch.  He is very young still and definitely has head issues, but if he can ever put it together, he'd be very scary.  Kinda like it is with AJ.  I'd be surprised if the Orioles deal him.  But, then again, it is the Orioles.

The fan-boob problem may in large part be television, which speeds baseball up, shows us where to look, moves to the rhythm of technical events, and features stultifying repetition (I’m talkin’ to you, Joe Morgan). If my default context is the bar or the tv room, I may simply not know that this new context works differently. Much better really, but the individual IS encouraged to actively follow the game.

Ever been to a concert at the ACC? Doesn’t matter who or what, everybody behaves as if we’re at a Leaf game…lots of purely attention-drawing noise and a constant back-and-forth for beer and nachos. Bad venue for musical enjoyment. From this perspective, live baseball isn’t, for many, the way baseball is supposed to be…it’s  too much and not enough, and our behavior is notes on confusion.

I'm certainly glad that nobody comes to my office and boos me when I don't get results, but then again, nobody pays to come watch me work and be entertained in the process.

I agree with several of the comments above that the fans at the Rogers Centre, as a group, appear to possess very little knowledge about the game, since no other reasonable explanations exist for their brain-dead reactions from time to time.  I wouldn't say that that's the only reason I haven't been down to a game this year, but the nonsense one has to put up with certainly makes staying home attractive. 

But I also agree with other posters insofar as I suspect much of the booing that has come the last several nights, though ostensibly directed at a handful of players, is more likely a response to the team's lacklustre performance this year.  What was (perhaps fraudulently) billed as a playoff contender is a pretty middling team, and since management seems more inclined to make excuses than hold players (or themselves) accountable for the team's failings, the fans who do show up have only one way to express their dissatisfaction.  As someone who follows the team but basically free rides on those who do go to the games and spend their money at the park, I'm a bit reluctant to pass judgement on the boo-birds. 

Philly fans did boo Mike Schmidt right into the hall of fame

Yes, but Phily fans are especially twisted and bitter (the Phillies have lost more games than any team, ever.)

No one wants to be like them!