I'm not sure if there has been a thread on this already, if so, you can't direct me to it.  I am a rebuilding franchise with several future ML players in my minor league system.  I am curious what the leading opinion is on how to determine when a player is ready to progress to the next level.  How many factors should I consider... is it AB's, IP, number of games, how well they are doing, makeup rating, temper rating, patience rating...  What criteria should I use and how much weight should I place on each thing to maximize growth? I've also heard people mentioning coaching as a factor (if so, how much?).

If you would like to look at any player profiles, I can post them. I am near the ALL-STAR break, so my initial reaction is to just promote at the ASB.

Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated. Thanks!

I tend to start my "ML prospects" at low A. Promote before the post season ends. 1 level a year.

I never spend much on my Rookie League coaches, so there is usually a large difference in quality between them and even Lo-A. After the draft, I take my true ML prospects and start them in Lo-A.

I'm with everyone else, one level a year.

I tend the go a slightly different direction on this issue.  To some degree I let them find their level.  I tend to start everyone at rookie or low A and if after 150 at bars/50 innings/at the all-star break they are really killing it I will promote them.  I look for a .900 OPS or 1.20 or below whip.  Now there are a few things that will slow this down.  First, if they are too young for their level.  I have an 19 yo who has a 1.100+ ops at AAA who I am leaving there.  Second, if they are clearly blocked at the ML I will do the year-by-year thing.  However, in general if they can handle the higher level I bring them to get the benefit of the better coaching and a I get a truer feel of their abilities.

I rarely promote in season.  I start most of my guys at rookie, with the occasional ready guy at LowA or HighA, depending on his age and current skills.  I then promote one level a year and once in AAA, if there is no room at the ML level yet, I may start them a second season at AAA and call them up after 20 games.  I try to avoid at all costs promotion to the bigs until they are just about done progressing.

I appreciate all the feedback. I tend to agree with all the feedback, but just to make sure... if I draft a 22 year old college player and start him out in Low-A, he won't be in the majors until age 26... does that sound right? Would you tend to promote a college player or older player faster than a high school player?

I have a mixture of 18-20 and 20-22 year old talent, so I'm curious if I should treat their progression the same.

If you're fighting for a ML playoff spot when he's in AAA, you may bring him up a tad early.  By then he should be 90% developed and good to go in the ML

The problem with the slow approach is twofold. The first one is that you are playing to win at the ML level.  If they can help your ML team win than you should seriously consider bringing them up.  I could have slowly progressed Pedro Perez, but he was ready to dominate after 220 minor league games so up he came.  I only held him back that long to delay his arb clock.  He would have been up for the stretch run the season before if I was in it.  It was a 74 win season so I didn't.  His career OPS over 1.000 tells me I made the right choice.  Lance Wallace isn't the all-star Perez is yet, but he's my best option for CF and so there he will be.  If this team holds to the same form it has in the previous two seasons they will contend for the WS so it doesn't make any sense to put anything less than my best on the field.  The second part of the problem can shown by someone like Philip Maduro.  At 24, he was ready to be a plus ML starter.  At 25 he was ready to be a #2/#3 starter.  Finally at 25 1/2 he finally came up.  At least a season and a half of productive ML pitching was wasted in the minors.  You can never get hat time back.  You could argue, well "I" (not really me) might lose him in FA and in that case "I" made sure I get 5 of his best possible ML starts.  I've been pretty aggressive about signing arb 2 guys to long term contract so that might be part of it, but i have yet to lose a player I really tried hard not to lose.  More worrisome to me is the potential of any injury.  Not that I wish it on him, his owner is a nice guy, but let say he has a major injury in his future at the age of 28.  The kind of injury that you lose 3 points from.  Well now instead of 5 productive pre-injury season from him you get 3 1/2.  I'm not saying I am right, but it I hope I have at least provided the other side.

One final point.  Don't assume you will save money by going slow in your advancement.  Let's go back to the case of Lance Wallace.  If I left him at AAA this season to simmer I would still need some to play CF.  I would probably go with Oscar Daniels.  Since I believe Wallace is ready I intend to trade Daniels.  So not only would I lose the offensive bump Wallace should give me, but I'd cost me 5.2 million as well of payroll (Daniels' salary vs. Wallace's).  I may be spending money later based off my choice, but I saving money now.