Greetings,

I think the general belief in HBD is that if you don't do promotions during the league's World Series, those prospect development points between last "regular season" dev points and near-end-of-season dev points are lost forever. So you only get that marginal development if you actually do the promotions at the optimal time.

Does anyone know definitively if this is true? I've seen a few posts debunking this, but most people say you have to do it to get those points.

Also, people say to do it during the World Series...but those minor league prospects haven't been doing anything since their minors season ended, so if there are points to get by doing year-end promotions does it really matter if you wait as long as possible - during the ML WS - or are the results the same if you do it any time after the prospect's minor league season/playoffs is over?

I'd rather promote guys differently than waiting til near the end of the WS, but don't want to lose any possible dev points so always do the promotions towards the end of the WS, even though it seems absurd.

No definitive answer. It's possible those points are just carried over and applied to the first development cycle of the following season after spring training (might explain why ST bumps are usually bigger?). But since we don't have a definitive answer from a dev on this topic, why take the chance?

In terms of doing it during the WS - the risk is that you do it too early and still miss the promotion trigger, so doing it during the WS makes the most sense. I'm pretty sure it's safe to do during the LCS as well though.

Also, it doesn't matter that they haven't been playing for a while does it? If they didn't hit their 6th cycle bump, they have leftover "experience points" or whatever you want to call it from regular season/playoff play that haven't been recorded. There's lots of aspects of HBD that don't make much sense when comparing it to IRL but you can only program so much realism into a game.

You could be the guinea pig and test different time periods to get a more precise timeframe. Test it out on a bunch of career minor leaguers that haven't hit their 6th cycle.

Thanks...that's all consistent with what most people have said. Don't want to chance it, so will keep doing it during the WS to try and maximize it. Have heard many people say the development doesn't carry over...it's do the promotion at the end of the season or the points are gone forever.

Hard to do an accurate test because wouldn't know definitively what would have happened the other way for any specific player.

Am hoping somebody does know definitively....that there was a Dev chat several years ago where it was discussed, or something along those lines.

Your advice makes me think of another question...you mention a 6th cycle bump. Are there always 6 cycles, and at every level except RL (since it starts later)? If the 6th cycle bump has already happened, is that it...or is it 6 cycles and then an added potential bump from the promotion, sort of a 6+1?

I ask all this because I would often like to do a mid-season promotion to a higher minor league level, but feel forced to hold off to take advantage of the potential dev points gained with an end-of-year promotion. If the prospect gets a couple of mid-season promotions followed by end-season promotions he might go through the minors faster than I'd like him to, forcing him to then repeat a level and miss out on an end-season promotion, costing him a bit of dev points. It seems the optimal way to maximize dev points is to only do end-season promotions (assuming he isn't a rock star that's only going to spend a couple seasons in the minors regardless of level).

Thanks for your advice!