Carlos Gonzalez

Carlos Eduardo Gonzalez is a professional baseball player from Venezuela and plays as an outfielder. Gonzalez began his professional career in 2002 after being signed up by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He spent the entire 2003 season with the Missoula Osprey in the Rookie League, batting at .258 with just 6 home runs in 72 games.

The following year, Gonzalez was promoted to the Low A-League with the Yakima Bears and in the same year, got another promotion to the South Bend Silver Hawks. In over 85 games with the two sides, combined, Gonzalez batted at a much improved .275 batting average with 10 homers. In 2005, Gonzalez played with the Silver Hawks and established himself as a top prospect.

Gonzalez led the team with his 92 RBI and 129 appearances. He was second in terms of his batting average, .307, as well as in terms of the home runs, at-bats and runs scored with 18, 515 and 91 respectively. Gonzalez was named to the mid- and post-season All-Star teams and was also named as the top prospect of the year in the Midwest League. Topps and Baseball America rated Gonzalez as a Low Class-A All star while also being named as the Topps Midwest League Player of the Year.

In 2006, Gonzalez moved into the Advanced A-League with the Lancaster JetHawks and also shared some playing time with the Tennessee Smokies in the AA-League. Gonzalez played a combined total of 122 games for the two teams and hit 23 home runs in all, while batting at .289. He was the team leader for the JetHawks with his 21 home runs and 93 RBI and was also named to the All-Star Futures Game as well as to the California League post-season All-Star team. Topps and Baseball America named Gonzalez as a High Class-A All Star for 2006.

By 2007, Gonzalez had climbed from the mid-30s to the 18th spot on Baseball America's top-100 prospects list and was also the third highest player from the Diamondbacks franchise. He spent most of the year in the AA-League with the Mobile BayBears while playing a few games in the AAA-League as well, for the Tucson Sidewinders. Gonzalez hit 17 homers that year, 16 of those coming for the BayBears along with 75 RBI – both team leading stats.

Like 2006, Gonzalez was again named to the All-Stars Futures Game in the 2007 season.

In a 9-player trade between the Oakland Athletics and the Arizona Diamondbacks, Gonzalez went over to Oakland to make his MLB debut. In May 2008, Gonzalez made his debut in the Major League against the Texas Rangers. He got his first hit, a double, in the same game. He would go on to hit another double on his debut. His next five hits, also doubles, got him into the record books as the first player since Hall of Famer Johnny Mize in 1936, to have extra base hits off their first 7 hits in the MLB. In November of 2008, along with Huston Street and Greg Smith, Gonzalez was traded out to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Matt Holliday.