David Cone

David Brian Cone (born January 2, 1963 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. Armed with a wicked fastball and tremendous instinct on the mound, Cone earned a legion of some of the most devoted fans in major sports, dubbed "Coneheads", who seemed to follow him no matter the team for which he played. Cone, a right-hander, was regarded as one of the top strikeout pitchers in the majors during the late 1980s and early 1990s and won the American League Cy Young Award in 1994 with the Kansas City Royals.

Pitch selection

Early career:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Fastball (95)
• Slider
• Sharp curve
• Change

Late career:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Fastball (92)
• Splitter
• Slider
• Overhand curve
• Sidearm (laredo) curve
• Change

"He's got a better-than-average fastball and a real hard slider. Those two pitches help set up one of the best change-ups in either league." (Durwood Merrill)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"David Cone has one of the best repertoires I've ever seen a pitcher possess. He had phenomenal natural stuff...he had a mid-90s fastball with about eight different arm angles. He threw a Frisbee slider that started out behind right-handed hitters, yet he could paint the outside corner with it." (Tom Candiotti)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Source: James, Bill and Rob Neyer. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers. Fireside, NY: 2004.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~