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UnipolSai Fortitudo concludes with a great blow the campaign to complete and strengthen the roster for the 2022 season. A few days after the start of the Scudetto Poule, the biancoblu “spend” the third visa for non-EU athletes and ensure the performance of the excellent thirty-year-old Dominican left-handed pitcher Luis Gonzalez, who boasts a long professional career played between Minor League (with the franchises of Philadelphia, Baltimore and San Francisco), Nippon Professional Baseball (Japanese top league, in 2020 with Chunichi) and Dominican Winter League (5 seasons with Estrellas Orientales). The new biancoblu started his career as a starting pitcher, subsequently distinguishing himself above all as a relief, used in recent seasons in triple A, practically the antechamber of the Major League. He will form with Raul Rivero the pair of foreign pitchers that can be used in the first race of each weekend and in the semifinal and final races 1, 4 and 7.
Luis Humberto Gonzalez was born in Santa Cruz de Mao (Dominican Rep.) On January 17, 1992, has an athletic physique (188 cm by 77 kg) and a left-handed arm that can make the difference, with qualities of control but also of power, which , also thanks to an ankle injury, over time they convince the technicians to use him as a relief, even with the role of closer, after a career start as a starter. He counts in particular on three excellent throws (fastball, slider and exchange) and throws strikes. The figures of his career in the Minor League are eloquent: 32 wins and 20 saves, compared to 37 defeats (ERA 4.91) are his loot of 11 seasons in the Minor League, playing 239 games (23 as a starter) and a total of 575.2 resumed. His average strikeout every 9 rounds is 9.4 (11.3 in triple A, 11.6 in double A), compared to 4.1 base balls. In the 5 seasons played in the competitive Dominican winter league with Estrellas Orientales he obtained 6 victories and one salvation in the face of only 2 defeats, in 54 games and 52.2 shots thrown, with an average strikeout of 10.3 compared to an average of 3.8 bases.
His professional career began in May 2010, when he signed an 18-year-old contract with the Phillies to compete in the Dominican Summer League at rookie level, playing 10 matches, with 9 starts, a complete match and a balance of 3 wins and 3 losses. In 2011 he moved to the Gulf Coast League, always at rookie level, collecting 3 more successes, compared to 2 defeats, in a total of 12 matches with 7 starts. In 2012 he concluded his experience with the Phillies playing a championship in single A short season, with Williamsport, used both as a starter and a relief, with 3 defeats against, against a salvation and ERA 4.62. After being released in March, on 18 July 2013 he signed a new free agent contract with the Baltimore Orioles, starting a long partnership with them, which starts with 9 excellent rookie-level matches in the Dominican Summer League, ending with 2 wins, one salvation and a defeat, ERA 1.35 in just over 13 relief shots. In 2014 he was a starting pitcher of the Delmarva Shorebirds, single A, South Athlantic League. In 17 games his balance is 6-4, ERA 4.83, 72 K in 76.1 innings. In 2015 he rises again to the level with the Frederick Keys (A +, Carolina League), still employed as a starter, with a budget of 6-11, collecting 91 K in 117.2 innings. He is confirmed to Frederick also in the following two seasons, but, having returned from the ankle injury that limits his use, in the new important role, closing 2016 with 1-2, 2 saves, ERA 3.13, 43 K in 31.2 inning; in 2017 he takes the chair with 6-2, 5 saves, ERA 2.47, 75 K in 62 takes. For him also 9 games in the Arizona Fall League, with the Salt River Rafters, obtaining 2 wins and 1 salvation, with ERA 0.00 in about 9 rounds.
In 2018 Gonzalez is ripe for a new leap in category and disputes 28 matches with the Bowie Baysox (AA, Eastern League), finishing with 2-1, 7 saves, ERA 2.17, the inclusion in the Mid-League All-Star Season and another 14 triple A matches with the Norfolk Tides, with a budget of 2 saves and 2 defeats. In 2019 the pattern is repeated, playing 23 races with Norfolk and 15 with Bowie, with an overall balance of 3 wins, 2 saves and 5 losses, ERA 3.18.
In 2020, with the season of the American Minors skipped for Covid, Luis Humberto gets an engagement in Japanese professional baseball, playing the entire season with Chunichi Dragons. For him 6 games in the Western League, with one salvation, ERA 2.57 and another 28 matches in the Central League, with ERA 4.78. In 2021 he signed a professional contract with the San Francisco Giants again as a free agent and was awarded in triple A, with the Sacramento River Cats, with whom he played 20 games, for a total of over 25 innings, with one defeat against and 33 strikeouts assets. In the last winter season in the Dominican League, with Estrellas, he played 10 races (10.1 IP), with a victory, ERA 4.35.
