Those of you who are on the cutting edge of the information world will already know a lot of this, but I figured it was time to catch up on some changes in the minor league system as they pertain to ex-Vancouver players.

* Dallas Braden is in the Oakland major league squad again. He’s working out of the bullpen and gave up a couple of runs on an inning a few days ago. He’s not expected to stick unless he blows the doors off a few lineups, but a second taste of ML ball is a nice thing for the 2004 C’s screwballer.

* Kevin Melillo (2004 C’s 2B) got himself a taste of The Show – and only a taste, ending up with the Moonlight Graham line of no at-bats, one walk.

* Landon Powell, who was co-catcher with Kurt Suzuki for the C’s in 2004, is shifting up to AAA – and in fact hit a home run on debut. This has led to much talk that Mike Piazza’s recent shift to Sacramento to get his arm ready for full-time catching duty again, may mean the Hall-of-Famer-to-be is being shopped around as trade bait.

* Meanwhile, Suzuki himself is having a great time in the bigs, hitting his second home run a few days ago in what looks to be an increasing workload. Jason Kendall will need to get his act together or Suzuki is going to take his gig – and who would have predicted in 2004 that we’d be saying that today?

* Mad Mike Mitchell (2005 C’s reliever) is back from injury and is rehabbing in Arizona. Before he went down with a should problem, he was looking likely to debut in the majors. And since everyone who started the year in AAA (and many in AA) have done so in the meantime, chances are that talk would have been correct. Once his arm is back, he’ll likely head back to AA with a view to getting back to AAA quickly.

* Anthony Recker starred in the High-A California League all-star game in what would be his last performance at Stockton’s Banner Island Park before being shifted up to AA to fill the Landon Powell void. Recker has more homeruns than any other player in the Oakland minor league system right now, and if he can get his defense in order, he could give the A’s a personnel problem behind the plate – as in, a ‘too many stars’ problem. On the other hand, if his defense continues to lag, there’s talk of him switching to 1st base over time. Hey, he’s got the build for it.

* From soon-to-be-cut to potential major leaguer in no time flat! Nick Blasi (2004 C’s OF), whose career had all but stumbled in 2005/6 as he failed to get out of Kane County while all around him flew up the system, is suddenly the hot outfielder in AAA ball. Blasi only went up to AAA from High-A Stockton because of the injury onslaught on the Oakland majors roster, having only hit .239 in the California League, but the kid from Wichita lit things up on debut and hasn’t looked back, cranking out a .324 average in AAA ball. While his recent Stockton power surge hasn’t translated to the larger ballparks of the PCL, Scout.com was recently told he won’t be headed down to AA (let alone High-A) ball any time soon, as long as he keeps it up.

* Ramiro Mendez was the first promotion from the C’s this season, but hasn’t been carrying his early Vancouver form into the Cougars dressing room. He’s hitting .174 at the moment, which is a bit lower than the .600 batting average he was sporting in Van City, but it’s still small sample size time for him so he’s likely to step up soon.

* Also in Kane County, Oakland 14th round draftee Matt Smith, a catcher out of Texas Tech, has shown up ready to play in the higher level of ball than he was expected to start in. His surprise start in full-season ball was due to the shifting of catchers throughout the system, but also due to the logjam the C’s have behind the plate currently.

* Mike Madsen wasn’t just pitching well in AA ball, he was pitching well enough that he was one of the eight players from the Midland Rockhounds in the Texas League All-Star Game. Richie Robnett, who must be getting sick of playing AA ball about now, hit a homerun in the game, while Madsen was soon packing his bags for AAA Sacramento afterwards.

* Justin Sellers hit a homerun recently for Stockton. That, in itself, should be news. But what’s really surprising is it was his second dinger in High-A ball. Did The Sandman bulk up?