Farm AA is a coach pitch league which focuses on teaching the fundamentals of baseball and the game itself.  6 year old players graduating from T-Ball move up to Farm AA.

Farm AA is an instructional league; for the first time, players will try to hit a ball moving through the air. Coaches are encouraged to assist the player as they start to master the difficult timing of swinging a bat at a baseball flying through space.

Farm AA teams play 10 games  during the season, on Saturday mornings and a few games at 530pm on Monday & Wednesday nights.  All Games are at the Tempe Sports Complex (TSC).

Practices are generally held at TSC on the same days as games and at similar times, however, the head coaches have discretion to move the practices to other locations, days and times.

Rules

• Bases are 60 feet apart
• No score is kept,  all games end in a “tie”
• Coaches pitch baseballs to their own team
• No umpires.  Coaches from both teams are encouraged to cooperate and help make sure both teams have a positive experience
• In general, players are allowed more than 3 strikes (emphasis is on success) however; coaches are allowed to call their own players out to keep the game moving
• Players who are “put out” by a defensive play leave the field and return to their own dugout
• For time sake, each half inning (top and bottom) consists of roughly half the team batting, regardless of how many outs there are
• Team sizes: 11-14
• Players may request coaches and friends
• Only the batter may hold and swing a bat

Safety is a top priority in all little league events

The Farm League Director will do his best to place friends together or with requested coaches, however it is not uncommon for a popular coach or player to have more then 20 friend requests making it impossible / impractical to put everyone together.  With this in mind, please understand the League Director will due his very best to balance personal requests with team and league needs.

Emphasis

The emphasis for Farm AA is to teach some very basic fundamentals, including:

• The proper way to hold and throw a baseball
• How to catch a baseball
• How to field a grounder
• How to swing a bat and hit a ball
• The names of all the positions
• Base running (going to first on a hit)
• Making an “out”

In general, the goal of Farm AA Coach is to keep the kids busy, engaged and having fun. Baseball is a difficult sport for this age because of how much standing around that can be involved. However, if set up properly, practices can be much more fun than the games because  many more kids can be active and involved at once. Lots of parental involvement is encouraged to help keep the kids engaged.