Dicky Angel Gonzalez is a Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

 with the Yomiuri Giants

Yomiuri Giants

The are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...

.

Biography

Gonzalez was drafted by the New York Mets

New York Mets

The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...

 in the 16th round of the 1996 Major League Baseball Draft

1996 Major League Baseball Draft

The 1996 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 4 and 5, 1996...

. He played part of the season for the Mets. Prior to the 2002 season, he was traded with Bruce Chen

Bruce Chen

Bruce Kastulo Chen is a Panamanian professional baseball pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.-Background:...

, Luis Figueroa

Luis Figueroa

Luis R. Figueroa is a Major League Baseball infielder who is presently in the minor league system of the New York Mets...

, and a player to be named later

Player to be named later

The concept of the "player to be named later" is most often associated with Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball trades.-Description:...

 (Saul Rivera

Saul Rivera

Rabell Saúl Rivera is a right-handed Major League Baseball relief pitcher currently a free agent.-Career:...

) to the Montreal Expos

Montreal Expos

The Montreal Expos were a Major League Baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec from 1969 through 2004, holding the first MLB franchise awarded outside the United States. After the 2004 season, MLB moved the Expos to Washington, D.C. and renamed them the Nationals.Named after the Expo 67 World's...

 for Phil Seibel

Phil Seibel

Philip Matthew Seibel is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher.-Biography:Seibel attended the University of Texas, where he pitched for the Texas Longhorns baseball team from 1998-2000. He also pitched for Team USA in 1999.His professional career began in 2000 when he was drafted in...

, Scott Strickland

Scott Strickland

Scott Michael Strickland is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher, who is currently a free agent.Strickland was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 10th round of the 1997 MLB Draft out of the University of New Mexico...

 and Matt Watson

Matt Watson

Matthew Kyle Watson is an outfielder who is currently with the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball....

. Prior to the 2003 season, he was selected off waivers by the Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

.

Gonzalez pitched for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization in , pitching for the Devil Rays briefly. He was released on June 7, 2004. He joined the Tokyo Yakult Swallows

Tokyo Yakult Swallows

is a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League.The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, the Yakult Corporation. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the former Japanese National Railways and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper Sankei...

 and their farm team in . He missed all of with an elbow injury.

He played in the 2006 World Baseball Classic

2006 World Baseball Classic

---------Pool B:-------------Pool C:-------------Pool D:-------------Pool 1:-----------------Pool 2:-------------Finals:-Semifinals:-Final:-Final standings:...

 for Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

.

After the 2008 season with the Swallows which saw him make only eight starts (1-5, 4.30), he was released. The Giants signed Gonzalez to a one-year, 30 million yen contract in the offseason. Gonzalez ended up having a career year in 2009, as he set career highs pretty much across the board. In 23 starts, he finished with 15 wins against two losses in 162 innings pitched, recorded a 2.11 ERA, and had two complete games. He started two games in the 2009 Japan Series

2009 Japan Series

-Summary:-Game 1:Saturday, October 31, 2009 at Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, HokkaidōAfter a scoreless first inning, Yoshitomo Tani hit a home run off of Fighters' starter Masaru Takeda to put the Giants up 1–0 in the top of the second inning. During the bottom half of the inning, however, Terrmel...

 against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, winning one and receiving a no-decision in the other.

External links