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SAN DIEGO -- The loss of shortstop Stephen Drew was supposed to kill the D-backs' chances of winning the National League West.That is, if the skeptics were right."That's why I don't listen to people on the outside," Willie Bloomquist said. "I don't worry about what the so-called experts say."With Bloomquist filling in for Drew, a smooth shortstop who broke his ankle on July 20, the D-backs are on football tickets the verge of winning the division.Bloomquist couldn't be Stephen Drew, so he decided to be Willie Bloomquist. Keeping it simple has worked for a long time for the Arizona State alum who was drafted by the Mariners in 1999."I've had people taking shots at me as long as I've played the game," Bloomquist said. "If you start trying to please everybody, you're not being yourself."Bloomquist has never football tickets spent an entire season with a team that reached the playoffs. The streak seemed likely to go on when D-backs general manager Kevin Towers signed him in January. Towers figured Bloomquist, a utility man, would improve the team's versatility and chemistry, and Bloomquist figured he'd help a franchise that lost 97 games in 2010 and 92 in 2009.Here the D-backs are, six games ahead of the second-place football tickets Giants going into Saturday. The lesson is a familiar one to Bloomquist, 33."If we would have listened to what the experts were saying about us in Spring Training, when were probably 28th or 29th in the 'power rankings,' we wouldn't be where we are," Bloomquist said. Baylor discusses approach with Hill SAN DIEGO -- D-backs hitting coach Don Baylor hasn't tinkered with the mechanics of newcomer football tickets Aaron Hill, the former Blue Jays veteran acquired with fellow middle infielder John McDonald on Aug. 23.Instead, Baylor advised Hill to think a little differently."I talked to him about getting on top of the baseball more than underneath it," Baylor said. "Underneath it, it seems like guys try to elevate the ball and hit it out of the ballpark."Baylor says Hill was receptive to his counsel and wor football tickets ks hard to apply it in batting practice and games. Something has clicked for Hill, who is batting .307 with 11 extra-base hits in 22 games after batting .225 with a .270 on-base percentage for the Blue Jays. Worth noting #149; If opponents aren't in awe of Arizona's lineup, manager Kirk Gibson isn't insulted. When Gibson and the Dodgers played in the 1988 World Series, no one was equating the football tickets m to the '27 Yankees. "It was an offensive monster," Gibson said, smiling, after ticking off several no-name hitters. He called the '88 Dodgers a "bad team that knew how to win." #149; The D-backs failed to draw a walk for just the eighth time this season on Friday. football tickets
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