Anybody got any quick guidelines on when to promote a prospect to the bigs ?? I've promoted a few guys too early I think, and they've suffered (or never had it to begin with). My thoughts now are to make sure the prospect has at least two full years in AAA and is near their full potential numbers. Does age play a part or whats the most important part of this decision ??

Thoughts anybody ??

Thanks

I tend not to promote anyone to the bigs until they have to be on the 40(4th pro season).

I have a RL/LoA/HiA, AA and AAA "schedule" where they play a season or at least the majority of a season at each of those "levels". So, by season 4, they've played a good bit in AAA.

However, a player will not suffer in development if he plays full-time at the BL level. He just starts his arb/FA clock earlier.

The consensus is that if they are playing regularly at the ML level (say, 400+ AB for a hitter) they will develop normally. Don't call up a developing kid to ride pine at the BL level- that will kill his growth.