Examining Hall of Fame case for New York Yankees, Mets legend David Cone

David Cone is someone that is revered by New York Yankees, New York Mets, and baseball fans, in general for his forward-thinking color analysis on the YES Network and on FOX in recent years. That’s why many fans were thrilled to hear that he was joining Sunday Night Baseball as an analyst on ESPN.

But many fans don’t realize that David Cone had an exceptional career: a career that should have him into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

New York Yankees and Mets legend David Cone should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame

David Cone spent parts of 17 years in the majors from 1986 through 2003, playing with the New York Mets for parts of seven seasons and with the New York Yankees for parts of six seasons. He had a career record of 194-126 with an ERA of 3.46. He had a 121 ERA+, a 1.256 WHIP, and a career rWAR of 62.3.

He was a five-time All-Star, five-time World Series champion (1992, 1996, 1998-2000), won the 1994 AL Cy Young Award when he was with the Kansas City Royals, came in the top six in Cy Young Award voting four more times, and even had two top 10 finishes in MVP voting.

He had eight seasons with an rWAR of 4.0 or higher plus two more seasons between 3.0 and 4.0 and two more seasons between 2.0 and 3.0 … and he had 100 or fewer innings pitched in both of those seasons.

With five World Series rings, Cone also has an extensive postseason resumé. In his postseason career, he had an 8-3 record with a 3.80 ERA in 21 appearances (18 starts). He is probably best known for his Game 5 start in the 1995 ALDS against the Seattle Mariners, though. He got a no-decision in that game as the Mariners won it on Edgar Martinez’s walk-off two-run double in the 11th inning. Cone threw 147 pitches (no, that’s not a typo) in 7 2/3 innings, giving up four runs.

So what does Cone look like in comparison to others?

Cone’s 62.3 rWAR is 55th all-time among primary starters. He is right behind someone that he saw a lot while broadcasting in C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia had a 62.5 rWAR … but in two more seasons than Cone. When you look at JAWS, which balances WAR and WAR7 (a player’s WAR in their best seven seasons), though, Cone tops Sabathia 52.8 to 50.9. Sabathia will likely get into the Hall of Fame when he gets on the ballot.

Hall of Famer Juan Marichal has an rWAR of 62.9 in one less season than Cone but Marichal made it into the Hall on his third ballot.

Hall of Famer Whitey Ford (who also was very successful in the postseason with the Yankees) has an rWAR of 57.0 and a JAWS of 45.8. Cone pitched one season more but his WAR is 5.3 higher and his JAWS is 7.0 higher.

In fact, for Cone’s JAWS, he is 65th all-time at 52.8. That is very comparable to one of Cone’s contemporaries: Hall of Famer John Smoltz, who had a JAWS of 53.9, which is 63rd all-time. Smoltz got into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot.

So when you delve into the numbers, you can see that Cone has very similar numbers to Hall of Famers and Hall of Famers that aren’t particularly fringy. Despite all of that, he fell off the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot after his first ballot in 2009, as he only got 3.9 percent of the vote.

With all of the people that will be up for consideration on the “Today’s Game” Era Committee ballot like Bruce Bochy, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, and others next year on top of the people they considered and/or had on the ballot last time, Cone will have a very hard path to the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite a Hall of Fame resumé.