Is there a "best" time to promote minor leaguers from one level to the next? I'm talking about getting a bonus bump in the ratings. When do you vets usually do so? Does it matter? I got an email from some whatever saying "So and so is crushing in Low A and should be considered for promotion", does that mean that if I promote him now as opposed to a week from now or not at all this season I'll see a boost?

What about other guys that are absolutely killing it? Like batting .320 with 150RBIs through 130 games?

There really is no such thing as a "boost" for a promotion.

During the season you will see ratings increase, and the player card rating lines will read:
Spring training
Regular season
Regular season
etc.
These can be thought of as "snapshots in time" IOW, the player may increase 2 or 3 points between "snapshots", but you don't see the one point increases until the "snapshot" takes place, when you will see he's gained 3 since the last "snapshot"

So when you promote a player and see a ratings increase, it is simply another "snapshot", titled "promotion". You would have seen the same increase had you not promoted, and in fact if you promote right after a  "snapshot" occurance, you will see no increase at all.. 

mchale is dead on, there is no such thing as a promotion bump.  I will say that there are a few good reasons to promote at the end of the season:

1) Cost certainty for the next season.  After rollover all your players are already at the correct level.
2) Coaching - all your players spend the offseason with the coaches at the next highest level, which usually means higher ratings
3) Reduces retirements - sometimes a player that you were planning on promoting will retire because you haven't moved him up yet.

Never thought of that, is #2 really true? By end of season, you mean after all the games are done?

Injured players do, don't they?

Medical bug. 

inopportune promotion timing can actually hurt your players development a lil bit.

there are normally 5 progression cycles in a season after ST ends.  if a player is getting 1 pt per category every cycle, if you promote him halfway through a cycle he might not gain any pts in that cycle, and he synthetically ends up with only 4 cycles throughout the year.

so the situations i promote are:

1) season's end after that level's team playoffs are over and a player has spent a full season at that level
2) season's end after a team's playoffs are over and the MLB regular season is over, and my prospect stands to realize an extra progression cycle w/ the promotion
3) immediately after the 4th progression cycle if he's playing for a team that will not make the playoffs where the next level up will

so basically my rules are to avoid keeping a prospect at the same level for more than one year, other than that the goal is just to get as many ratings bumps as i can.  most of it is pretty nitpicky but i like getting the extra point or two where i can.

i promote at the end of the year simply so prevent retirements and gives me a better idea of where my levels stand.

I promote during the offseason before the year starts.  Sometime before the Rule 5 draft.  After retirement.  If guys want to retire I let the door hit em on the way out.

Posted by rangerup on 11/15/2011 2:43:00 PM (view original):
I promote during the offseason before the year starts.  Sometime before the Rule 5 draft.  After retirement.  If guys want to retire I let the door hit em on the way out.

agree - if a guy is going to retire it's not a prospect that was going to make a difference on the ML squad so who cares.

I'm with deanod. Also, I like getting the end-of-season promotion bump because it shows up on the player card the following offseason. I understand that those gains would otherwise be realized during the "Opening Day" snapshot. However, if I have any interest in trading the player during the offseason/spring training, I should get a little more trade value for him if that bump is already reflected on his current ratings.

i like promoting at any point in the off-season, that way you don't get the annoying "three stat lines" for one season. 

its a stupid method and has hindered my teams in the past, but if you have OCD, then its wonderful for looking through minor league stats. . . .