David Cone Played With Some Pretty Great Players

Baseball-reference.com is one of my favorite sites. I'm not sure if it's new, but I stumbled upon for the first time, a feature I hadn't seen before under Oracle of Baseball. It allows you to see connections and degrees of separation between players. One search I wanted to do was for a list of players one step away from David Cone. I knew Coney had played with some pretty great players over a pretty great career (borderline Hall of Fame). But I was amazed by the list I got. Listed below are the Hall of Fame, probably Hall of Fame, possible Hall of Fame, should-have-been Hall of Fame players, and other notable players that David Cone played with over his career. It's a pretty ridiculous list (and doesn't even include guys like Vince Coleman and Hideki Irabu who were more infamous than famous).

 

Hall of Fame:

Dave Winfield

Gary Carter

Wade Boggs

George Brett

Eddie Murray

Paul Molitor

 

Probable Hall of Fame (guys who I think are definitely in eventually):

Jeff Kent

Roger Clemens (minus that whole steroids thing)

Tom Glavine

Derek Jeter

Manny Ramirez

Mariano Rivera

Pedro Martinez

Mike Piazza

 

Possible Hall of Fame:

Jorge Posada (numbers for a catcher are tremendous)

Roberto Alomar (numbers for a 2nd baseman are tremendous)

Andy Pettitte (if he has a big season, he'll be awfully close)

Tim Raines (he should be in but the voters are stupid at times)

 

Should-have-been Hall of Fame:

Kevin Brown (if he hadn't totally sucked after getting huge contract)

Nomar Garciaparra (if he had been able to keep healthy)

Doc Gooden (if he hadn't done drugs)

Darryl Strawberry (if he also hadn't done drugs)

Jose Canseco (whole steroids thing probably did him in)

Willie Randolph (maybe if he played in a different era because his stats are really similar to Hall of Famers Pee Wee Reese, Dave Bancroft, and Red Schoendienst)

Don Mattingly (if his back had held up)

 

Other Notable Players

Bernie Williams, Al Leiter, David Wells, Joe Carter, Jose Reyes, Jack McDowell, John Wetteland, Paul O'Neill, John Olerud, John Franco, Jimmy Key, Tom Gordon, Tino Martinez, Ruben Sierra, Bobby Bonilla, and Cecil Fielder