I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times, but I can't find any answers so here goes again:

I'm in a tight playoff race where 2-3 Ws can be the difference between having a 1st round bye and missing the playoffs entirely. I have 2 stud SPs slowly making their way through my minors. They're both currently in AA and are absolutely destroying the competition (243 and 231 SO respectively through less than 200 IP each). Naturally I think they can help me this year at the ML level but I also want to hold on to them for as long as possible. If I promote them now (game 139 tonight), how does that affect their arbitration in the future? Will these 23 games (and do playoffs count if I make it???) count as a ML year? Will I have to wait until game #44 and opposed to game #21 when I want to promote them to ML in the future to counter bringing them up now?

Thanks.

First, it's not games, but ML days that counts as service time.  So you'll have to account for any off days between now and the end of the regular season.

I believe an HBD season is around 175 or 176 days, while a year of ML service time is 172 days.  So you'll want to hold him back next year for (however many service days he accrues this season) + 4 or 5 days.

Posted by tecwrg on 3/22/2013 6:02:00 PM (view original):
First, it's not games, but ML days that counts as service time.  So you'll have to account for any off days between now and the end of the regular season.

I believe an HBD season is around 175 or 176 days, while a year of ML service time is 172 days.  So you'll want to hold him back next year for (however many service days he accrues this season) + 4 or 5 days.

Okay I understood the "day not games" part, but I'm a little confused on the second part... its total days, not consecutive days, right?

For argument sake, lets say this is Season 18 (because it is):
Season 18: 30 days
Season 19: 30 days
Season 20: 100 days
Season 21: 12 days

So officially, the 12th day in Season 21 is when he'll complete his 1st year of ML service?

It's total days, yes.