The improved play was a good sign for manager Buck Showalter, who will use the final weeks of the season to continue evaluating his talent. Many of the Diamondbacks are young players unaccustomed to playing a 162-game schedule, and Showalter is watching to see how they handle the grind. You don't throw everything out from the whole year, but you watch what they do. Showalter denied the perception of many in baseball that the Diamondbacks expected to fare much better than they have in their inaugural season. He said his biggest task would be deciding which players can be counted on to move the club forward in 1999.
People spend too much time evaluating everybody else.
You better evaluate your own people first. It'll be nice going to spring training next year knowing some things about some people. We came into this thing pretty blind other than the scouting process. At least we've got some ideas about what guys can and can't do. An unhappy ending Gary Sheffield is just one of those players who is not supposed to be happy.