Age Impacts in Recruiting/Drafting?

In general, the younger you are, the further you are away from your ultimate ability as a player because you're not physically mature and you're also likely to further refine your skills over time. Thus, the younger the player, the more projection is involved. Additionally, all other things being equal, a younger player will generally be considered to have the highest ceiling (ceiling is what the player becomes in a best case scenario).

Of course, the other side of not being physically mature, is not being mature in other areas as well, which is something that probably has to be weighed in determining whether to go after a player.

One additional note, age is especially important when talking about college sophomores in regards to the draft. Players generally need to be three years out of high school to be eligible for the draft once they attend class at a four year college. However, older sophomores can also be eligible for the draft if they turn 21 within 45 days of the draft. So age is especially pertinent in this case.

In the cases of older kids (kids who were held back, or who started school late), their ability on the field can attract a lot of attention. That gives them the advantage of at least being seen and evaluated. But I seriously doubt that anyone gets to the scholarship or draft point in the discussion without finding out and considering the kid's true age, and then evaluating whether he's still "projectable" or whether he might have maxed out already.

I have seen younger kids who started school early or whose brains allowed them to skip a grade suffer in the process. We have a kid on our team this year who is a junior only because he skipped a grade. He could've used another season on JV; he needs more strength, and barely plays because he is stuck behind 2 seniors at his position. Even as a senior he'll only be junior age. To me this makes it very hard for him to be seen in order for anyone even to consider whether he's "projectable".

Generally school considerations come ahead of sports considerations, but I often wonder with kids who skip ahead, what's the big hurry? With all the AP classes available, if you just leave your son where he is, he can head off to college with so many credits it won't matter that he spent the full 4 years in high school. For us, baseball was part of the whole experience of school, which also includes things like plays, the prom and dating in general. Enjoy it while you can, IMHO. You'll be working the rest of your life soon enough!