Hockey stretches out season, geography

I'm breaking into my baseball inactivity to write a bit about hockey.
Before the Stanley Cup finals get too far along, and with the Kings leading 1-0 in games, I'll say that Los Angeles is my pick to win the title. The Rangers and Henrik Lindqvist are proof that a team with a hot goalie can go far in the playoffs, and I can't count them out.
But then, what do I know? My initial picks for the finals were St. Louis and Boston.
In putting together some personal biographical information yesterday, I checked out the American Hockey League's Calder Cup playoff history to refresh my memory on what season I was a beat writer for the Rochester Americans. My initial thought was 1976-77, but then I thought perhaps it was '78-79.
Turned out that my initial thought was correct -- Rochester did lose the Calder Cup finals in six games to Al MacNeil's Nova Scotia Voyageurs in 1976-77. As I recalled, the finals were in early May. (Just checked that; Game 6 was April 30, but I probably flew home May 1.
Anyway, my trip to the AHL website showed me that this year's Calder Cup finals still are going on. At least they will be beginning tonight. It's the Texas Stars against the St. John's IceCaps. And if the series goes seven games, it would go even longer than the interminable NHL and NBA playoffs. Calder Cup Game 7 is scheduled for June 23. Summer hockey!
I don't know much about either team, except that Texas has a number of players who were up and down with Dallas this season. Included are a couple who went back after the NHL parent team was eliminated in the Stanley Cup first round.
I did know that the Texas Stars play in Cedar Park, Texas, near Austin. But I had to check the IceCaps website to see exactly where they're from. It's not St. John, New Brunswick, which did/maybe still does have an AHL team, but St. John's, Newfoundland, which I think was new found because it's the closest spot in North American from Europe.
So there's a bit of travel involved from deep in the heart of to an island out in the Atlantic Ocean, right?
Right. The competing cities are 3,450 miles apart. The driving time is estimated at 58 hours. I don't believe that includes the 110-mile ferry ride between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, or the time waiting for the ferry. The route would go through three Canadian provinces and 14 U.S. states. The cities are 2 1/2 time zones apart, because Newfoundland has its own time zone that is half an hour ahead of Atlantic Time in Canada's other maritime provinces.
For a sense of perspective, 3,450 miles is about the distance from New York to London, but with less of it over water. In the coast-to-coast Stanley Cup finals, New York and LA are about 1,000 miles closer to each other.
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Friday night, I saw a Texas Rangers prospect, Double-A Frisco RoughRiders RHP Alec Asher, impressively mow down a verifiably weak San Antonio lineup. In seven innings, Asher allowed two hits, a single and a triple, no walks and no runs while using just 84 pitches. The visiting Missions do have some prospects, such as OF Rymer Liriano and C Austin Hedges, but they were no match for Asher. My one concern about Asher, who last night pitched better than I'd ever seen him, is that he's not a strikeout pitcher even though he has a mid-90s fastball. I'd compare him a pitcher with less velocity but similar results: Rangers RHP Nick Martinez. Both of them have to command both the fastball and something crooked and off-speed to be successful in any given start. That might sound like the formula for any pitcher, but my point is that neither Asher nor Martinez need the off-speed stuff to make straightish fastballs more effective in a way that Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish and other dominant major league starters don't have to.
I challenge anyone, even in the Rangers organization, to tell me they knew when circumstances forced 2B Rougned Odor to jump from Double-A ball to the majors with barely a hiccup after just a few dozen games above A ball. But with a 400-foot home run and a .280ish average Friday, Odor has done just that. He's supremely confident, with some swagger and flair, but he's justifying that opinion of himself. On a lesser level, SS/2B Luis Sardinas has held his own with Texas since a similar promotion.
Before I forget, here's an expression of my admiration for 3B Adrian Beltre as a professional. A couple of weeks ago, with the Rangers' offense in an even deeper slump than usual this season, Beltre took the burden on himself. That's a leader's perspective, but he's a leader in part because he's willing to stand up and take responsibility. Still, it's easier to say than it is to do. Beltre, who still can beat an opponent with anything but his legs, is walking the walk. He has even stepped his hitting up a notch this week. He hit three home runs in a three-game series against his own personal punching bags, the Orioles. Beltre now has 9 homers in his last 11 games vs. Baltimore.
Big series in Pittsburgh this weekend. The Brewers are trying to keep their perch in the NL Central lead with a fairly wide gulf between themselves and the .500 Cardinals and sub-.500 Pirates. The Bucs are trying to climb into serious contention for really the first time this season. If they didn't wear themselves out circling the bases 15 times Friday night, they have a chance to move within four games of the lead. Pittsburgh's latest unlikely heroes have been SS Jordy Mercer and utilityman Josh Harrison, who has grabbed a hold of the leadoff spot with both hands.

Twins on the rise?

Some observations from Thursday's games.
I watched the Twins and Rangers, a 5-4 Texas victory, and came away impressed with Minnesota's improvement.
The Twinkies have had some players on a shuttle between the Twin Cities and Triple-A Rochester, and it's seeming less likely that OF Oswaldo Arcia, SS Eduardo Escobar and SS/OF Danny Santana will need their return ticket back East.
Arcia swings a mean bat. He hit a career-high 24 homers last season between the Twins and Red Wings, but his offensive strength seems to be more in driving balls to the right-center field gap. He showed nascent power in his last full minor league season in 2012 by belting 26 doubles. Rangers outfielders seemed to spend a lot of time during the series in Minnesota running back toward the scoreboard in center for balls Arcia hit.
Escobar has slumped a bit lately, but he seems to be continuing his personal trend of improvement his second time at a level. In those situations, his batting average has gone up from the .230 range to .290-.300-plus. In any event, he's a big offensive step up from Pedro Florimon, but with less speed.
Santana is listed as a shortstop too, but he had a three-hit game as the center fielder in place of heralded, and disappointing, prospect Aaron Hicks. There seems likely to be a place for Santana as long as he hits.
As a team, Minnesota will need more pitching to be a serious contender.
On the Texas side, rookie RHP Nick Martinez started, and struggled. He left in the fifth inning of a 4-4 game. He has done far more for the Rangers than they would have expected from a guy they didn't even invite to major league spring training. What he showed Thursday was that he needs his curve to be effective. Against the Twins, it alternated from not breaking the way it usually has in his brief major league career to sitting in the middle of the plate so OF/DH Josh Willingham could hit it out of the park.  Martinez has some upside, just don't expect his future to be high in a major league rotation.
While I'm on the subject of pitchers, I'm going to continue my usual distaste for the DH rule. One of the arguments for it is "I don't like to watch pitchers making outs." OK, then let's get DHs for Brad Miller and Will Venable too.
I do like to watch pitchers contributing with their bat and their glove.
Martinez helped defuse a rally by fielding C Josmil Pinto's weak ground ball in front of the plate with the bases loaded, and shoveling the ball to C Robinson Chirinos for a force out. That wouldn't seem so big, except that Texas lost a game in the series when RHP Joakim Soria couldn't field a similar grounder.
Extending the DH rule to the National League would deprive some good-hitting pitchers of having a chance to help themselves with their offense. Cy Young winner LHP Clayton Kershaw would be one of those. Also, Reds RHP Mike Leake, who has the most hits of any pitcher over a 4- or 5-year span. OK, so Brewers RHP Yovani Gallardo was a pinch hitter and not the pitcher when his 10th-inning double Tuesday when his double drove in the winning run, but you get the idea.
Pirates RHP Gerrit Cole didn't have a hit Thursday, so his average dropped to .250. What he did was follow two singles by SS Clint Barmes with sacrifice bunts, setting up two run-scoring singles by electric RF Josh Harrison in a 6-3 victory over the Dodgers. Cole's second bunt was in the seventh inning, and because he can handle a bat the Pirates ace was able to stay in the game for the bottom of the inning in his team-high fifth win.