Should David Cone Be in the Hall of Fame?

Rob Friedman, the Pitching Ninja, recently did an interview with, and a deep dive into, David Cone, the variety of his nasty pitches, and the highs and lows of his long career.

For the uninitiated, over a 17-year career, Cone won 194 games (against 126 losses), finished with a 3.46 ERA, struck out 2,668 batters, and compiled 62.3 bWAR. He was a five-time All-Star, won twenty games on two separate occasions, led major league baseball in strikeouts twice, and won the 1994 Cy Young. From 1988 to 1999, only Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux had a higher bWAR than Cone, and only Randy Johnson and Clemens had more strikeouts. And oh, by the way, Cone through a perfect game in New York in 1999, won five World Series, with a 2.12 ERA in six appearances Fall Classic appearances. And yet, even with that résumé, Cone received only 3.9% of the Hall of Fame vote in 2009, making it his first and only year on the ballot (a player must receive 5% of the vote to be eligible the following year).

Granted, 2009 had some heady players eligible for induction. Namely, the recently-deceased Rickey Henderson, who cruised in with 94.8% of the vote; and Jim Rice, who squeezed in with 76.4%. Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Lee Smith, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, Dave Parker (this year), and Harold Baines all fell short of the 75% threshold in 2009, but all eventually made it in. Cone’s 3.9% was behind Mark Grace’s 4.1% and Baines’ 5.9%. Grace and Baines both had fine careers, but none were as impactful or as laudable as Cone’s. To wit, Grace finished his career with 46.4 bWAR, Baines with 38.8.

For New York Yankees fans, Cone’s career looks eerily similar to Whitey Ford’s, as each were part of dynasties (Ford won six World Series in New York vs. Cone’s four). Cone bests Ford in bWAR: 62.3 vs. 57; Cone had two 7-bWAR seasons while Ford never achieved more than 6.7 (once, in 1964). Cone’s five-year peak bWAR was 33.3, while Ford’s was 25.6. Despite that, Ford was elected to the Hall of Fame on his second try – in 1974 – while Cone was knocked off the ballot on his first.

According to Baseball Reference, Cone had 19 instances of leading the league in a pitching category, while the average HOFer has 40. According to Bill James’ Hall of Fame Monitor, where a score of 100 means a “good possibility” of being elected and 130 is a “virtual cinch,” Cone scores 103.

James also has a Hall of Fame Standard, where the average HOFer scores 50. Cone comes in with 39 (Ford was at 56).

Jay Jaffe’s JAWS scoring system, which is to many the current gold standard in these assessments, ranks Cone as follows:

	Avg. HOF Pitcher	David Cone
Career bWAR	73.0	62.3
7-Year Peak bWAR	49.9	43.4
JAWS	61.5	52.8
bWAR/162	4.5	4.9

By those objective measures, Cone isn’t up to snuff. But, he most certainly should have gotten more than one look at it. If Cone were on the ballot this year, he would most likely be compared to Andy Pettitte, whose numbers are 128 on James’ Hall of Fame Monitor; 60.2 career bWAR; 34.1 7-year peak; 47.2 JAWS. Pettitte did win 256 games (vs. Cone’s 194), but his ERA is nearly half a run higher; he never won a Cy Young; and only led the league in any category seven times (again, Cone did this 19 times). And yet, Pettitte is currently on the ballot for the seventh time. With 13.5% last year, it is unlikely he will find enough votes to get to 75%. But the point is that he is still in the game. And David Cone deserved (and still deserves) that same consideration.