Regarding Tribe baseball's Nick Raquet & Cullen Large being selected in the MLB draft, former Tribe coach Jim Farr -- now a scout with the Kansas City Royals -- was at the W&M-JMU series at Plumeri Park earlier this season. On hand to get a look at Raquet and Large, among others.

Was strangely ironic to see Farr, somewhat incognito, back at Plumeri as a scout. It was him who put Tribe baseball on the map and was largely responsible for getting Plumeri Park funded and built. He came to W&M in '93 and stayed until '05, was 373-313, which is about 176 more wins than any baseball coach in Tribe history. If you were around the baseball program then, you remember him as an amazing recruiter (with only 4.5 scholarships to work with!).

Farr was one of the top pitching coaches in the country. His specialty was signing big, projectable high school pitchers that were flying under the radar in high school, coaching them up at W&M and turning them into pro prospects. One example was Chris Ray, undrafted out of high school in Tampa. After three years of Farr's tutelage he was drafted in the 3rd round by the Orioles and became the O's closer in 2006. Another was Bill Bray, undrafted out of HS in Virginia Beach. After pitching three years under Farr, Bray was a first-round pick of the Expos (13th overall) in 2004 and made his big league debut two years later with the Nationals.

Farr was also at the helm for one of Tribe baseball's darkest times, in the mid-90's when two former players sued Farr and The College for $3.25 million in damages for verbal and physical abuse. Farr counter-sued for defamation of character & emotional duress. The legal standoff was settled out of court and included a public apology by Farr.

After leaving W&M, Farr was an assistant coach at University of Maryland. In later years, he interviewed for head coaching positions at Maryland and Duke, both near-misses where he was a finalist for each job. He's been a scout for the Royals since 2010.