Minor League Managment/Player Development

[goof1016]

I was wondering what kinds of strategies you use to run the farm teams in regards to deciding when and where to place prospects and what factors you look at to move a player to the next level. Is it certain stats, ratings, or simply number of innings pitched or at bats. What have you found to be the most successful.

[Mittal]

In season, I never move guys up a level until atleast 2 months into the season to prevent any sample size issues. I will only move guys up while the season is running if they are producing at a huge pace (Projected 40+ VORP). Off-Season I will move up all prospects that had atleast +5 or so VORP.

I also take a look at OOTP suggestions in terms of who to move up or down and follow those sometimes.

If a prospect produces anything below 5 VORP for the whole season, I keep them at their current level. But I will use washed up prospects (25+ year old guys) to fill out the minor leagues. In-Season I will move down a prospect after 2 months if he is on a -10 or lower projected VORP pace (I have a special sample size requirement here though, which is generally around 150 AB's / 40 IP, so bench players and relief pitchers will rarely get moved down a level by me).

Basically, most of my prospects play 1 year at each level. I will only keep guys at the same level more than 1 year if they have not atleast outproduced replacement level players, and I will only move guys up a level in-season if they are killing their league. Considering I go pretty slow with my prospects, I rarely move players down levels. If they need to be moved down, they have generally reached the washed up category, in which case I use those players as fillers.