I'm interested in knowing your thoughts/experiences on promoting players thru the minors to maximize their development.

Do you let them play full seasons in each of the minor league stops?

Do you promote exceptional players from LoA to HiA (for example) midway thru the season to get the possible promotion bump in ratings?

Thoughts on players rising multiple minor league levels in 1 season?

There is no such thing as a "promotion bump." When it shows new ratings upon promotion, it just shows the ratings that a player had naturally progressed toward during the last development cycle.

That said, I like having players go through a year at each level if possible. That way they're all developed once they reach the majors and can seamlessly fill holes for me. Sometimes I may have a player play only a few weeks at AAA and then call them up (to delay arbitration) if it seems like they're just about ready by then.

When I first took over my team and it was mostly devoid of ML talent, I sent my first big crop of prospects through the minors in 3 years and while they ended up being a fine group that helped me compete, virtually none reached their full potential. Now that my team is established, I let a guy really take his time in the minors and my prospects are coming up better than ever.

I usually put ML prospects at Rookie or Low A the first year I sign them (partial year). Their first full year is spent at High A. After that they get 2-3 years at some combination of AA and AAA. Coach ratings play a role in devlopment. My best MiL coaches are always at AA or AAA. I want my prospects getting most of their time with the better coaches but I do not promote them to an upper level if they will not have sucsess there. So far it seems to be working well for me.

i always assign ML prospects to High A for a variety of reasons...i don't feel like this has been detrimental to development

the exception to this is the rare instance where i have a better hitting or pitching coach at LoA (or even rookie) than at HiA

Almost all ML prospects start in HiA for me as that is usually where my better coaching starts and they can get 2 days of games in before the rookie league starts and more games after the rookie league ends. I do not promote until the ML world series starts to get the last possible growth update before rollover.