UPDATE to 2018 New Bat standards, includes video. 
http://www.littleleague.org/learn/equipment/baseballbatinfo.htm


From Fall 2016:

LYBO Community,

As the holiday season approaches, we expect that many of our players will put a new baseball bat on their wish list.  This is a reminder that the bat standards will change in 2018.  Yes, that’s 14 months from now.  We are sending this reminder so you don’t buy a new bat that your player can “grow into” only to find it is an “illegal” bat a couple seasons from now.  You should also expect the resale value of any bats that are not compliant in 2018 to obviously drop.

All bats that are currently “legal” will continue to be so through the end of calendar 2017. 

What’s the point of this?  Why is this happening?  Is this a good thing?

The greatest result of this decision by Little League is that the same bat will be “legal” for our 12 year old division and below, whether you play Little League or in a tournament or game outside of Little League.  The American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC) also known around here as Southwest Ohio or “select” baseball, will follow the same standard.  So, no need to have two different bats. 

This will also hold true for ages 13 and above who currently enjoy the ability to use “big barrel” bats, but have had different performance standards thus making bat purchasing confusing.  In 2018, again, we will use the same bat and bat standard.  One bat.  Period. 

LYBO will continue to provide a team bat for use by each team. 

For more information on this topic, please see the following websites:

Little League – general overview, bat standard, bat types: 

http://www.littleleague.org/learn/equipment/baseballbatinfo

Announcement by USA Baseball which includes which leagues are using this standard:

http://web.usabaseball.com/article.jsp?ymd=20150807&content_id=141742668&vkey=news_usab