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[QUOTE="pfister1, post: 1108511, member: 285"]
I suppose that could be part of the reason for an increased level of play, the oldest kids are technically 3 months older than the oldest kids were 10 years ago.  (the change from a July 31 to an April 30 cutoff date occurred in 2005).

Personally I think the bigger reason for the increased level of play is more about the approach to the activity; (i) a huge percentage of these kids are playing year around, (ii) all of the better kids participate on multiple teams, (iii) many are participating in indoor workouts throughout the winter, (iv) many are getting professional academy training between team practices and in the offseason, (v) coaches are using professional techniques to train the kids e.g. using video analysis of their swings, (vi) Easton, DeMarini and others keep engineering better bats.

This season's 12 year olds had birthdays that occurred between 5/1/2001 and 4/30/2002.    The kid born in May is going to have some advantage over the kid born in April competing with or against him.   But ultimately I am not sure its any different than if the cutoff were still 7/31, the advantage would just fall to kids born in August rather than to those born in May.    I guess people get funny about it because they're still called 12 year olds even though some have turned 13.   But does it really make a difference, its kids whose birthday are before a particular date playing??
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