[Timofmars]

Another thing is that it seems that the recommendations depend on what position the player is set to. So a pitcher might be good enough as an SP, but not RP, or vice versa. Or a batter is good enough as an SS, but not at 1B.

I could understand a pitcher being good enough as an RP but not SP. But it seems a bit odd that players could be good enough as SP but not RP, even if they get a big boost to their stuff rating as an RP, as I see is the case with one of my rookie league pitchers that is recommended to move up when set to SP, even with 100% scouting accuracy and 100% rating based evaluations.

Though when I played with the game settings regarding how overall rating is calculated (relative to which league, and whether it is based on position or overall), the AI decided to change it's mind about thinking my rookie league pitcher should be promoted, even though nothing but these settings which seem to be for display purposed only were changed. Seems like a bit a bug. All other players seemed to maintain their recommendations.

It looks like the recommendations for batters are determined by the batter's overall rating for his level, without regard to the average strength of other players at that position and level. I can clearly see that when I order the players by overall rating and see where the line is drawn on recommending promotion/demotion. But changing what position the batter is set to will change his overall rating, so that can change the AI recommendation.

If that recommendation is supposed to be directly related to optimal competition levels for player development, then that begs the question of whether the player's position setting makes a difference in his development, or if the position he actually plays in games makes a difference. I would tend to think that the position he plays is what matters, not his display position setting, since it seems in my experience that WAR and a player's performance morale both depend his game position, such as a good C playing 1B and putting up good numbers for a C may be unhappy with his performance if it's not so good for a 1B. And if that's true, it may also be possible to play a player in his weaker position if he is too good for his current level in his current position, in order to bring his apparent abilities down to a more appropriate level that matches the league level and gives him a challenge.

Unlike batters, pitchers' overall ability rating doesn't change when you change their role unless you have the setting turned on to compare players to others in their position. But clearly there must be a different standard for SP vs RP at each level, since changing a pitcher's role can change the AI promotion recommendation. So maybe SP are compared to SPs, RPs to RPs, and all batters are compared to each other but with their defense for their currently set postion taken into account.

Also, it appears that the recommendations are based on what overall ratings you show, even as you toggle whether overall rating are based purely on scout ratings or on AI evaluation that includes stats (in OOTPB 18, which is what I'm playing). In other words, changing that setting changes the recommendations, but that setting I think is only really supposed to be for your personal display preferences with no other game effect. But actually, it changes the promotion recommendations, so I think that's strong evidence that the recommendations aren't from some coach or someone that "might know something you don't know," but rather is just a measurement of whether a player's overall rating, however derived, is above or below a certain threshold for that league.

But then the question still remains about what actually determines whether a player is properly challenged by the competition or not for development purposes. My guess would be that it does depend on overall ratings based on his real ratings (100% accuracy numbers, no stats) for the position he is playing in games.