Hood, Gossett named weekly winners

ROUND ROCK, Texas - New Orleans Baby Cakes' outfielder Destin Hood and Nashville Sounds' right-hander Daniel Gossett have been tabbed the Pacific Coast League Player and Pitcher of the Week for the period of May 22-28, the League office announced Monday. 

Hood matched a Minor League Baseball weekly-best with five home runs. In six games, he batted .333 (8-for-24) and paced the PCL with 24 total bases and a 1.000 slugging percentage, while tying for the League lead with six extra-base hits and 11 RBI. Additionally, Hood scored six runs and posted a 1.346 OPS.
The 27-year-old homered in four consecutive games from May 23-26, all coming in a series at Colorado Springs. He recorded his second multi-homer game of the month, hitting two homers and driving in five, in a win on May 24. The following day he had a weekly-best three hits and three RBI. He capped off the series by homering again, part of a two-hit effort.
The Alabama native, in his second season in the Marlins organization, is third in the PCL with 13 home runs on the year, homering once every 13.31 at-bats, a ratio that also places third in the League. In 173 games with New Orleans the last two years, Hood has hit .265 (172-for-649) with 28 homers and 116 RBI. He made his major league debut in 2016 in a 13-game stint with the Marlins, hitting one home run and driving in two. Hood was a PCL midseason All-Star earlier that year. He was originally selected by the Nationals in the second round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft; he spent the first seven years of his career in their farm system before splitting the 2015 campaign with the Indians and Phillies. This is his second career Player of the Week, having previously been honored in May 2011 with Single-A Potomac in the Carolina League.

Gossett went eight shutout innings, allowing only four singles, in his lone start on May 22 at Sacramento. He had six strikeouts with no walks, and retired the final 14 hitters he faced in picking up the win. Gossett also got 13 groundball outs and threw 62 of his 91 pitches for strikes.
The Lyman, South Carolina native has made nine starts for the Sounds this year, going 2-2 with a 3.59 ERA (47.2 IP, 19 ER), a total that ranks 10^th-lowest in the PCL. Gossett entered the season as the Athletics' eighth-best prospect, according to Baseball America. He was selected by Oakland in the second round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of Clemson University. He made two starts for the Sounds last year and has a 3.23 ERA (61.1 IP, 22 ER) in his Triple-A career. This is his second career Player of the Week; he earned the award for the period of May 16-22, 2016 with the Single-A California League's Stockton Ports.