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SPORTS The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, February 20, 2020 3B NFL BRETT DUKE I The Associated Press Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm looks for a receiver during the first half against Baylor in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 in New Orleans. Draft value of Fromm varies among teams Associated Press NASCAR Newman out of the hospital after two days Associated Press ATLANTA BRAVES Third-base battle looks to be only major question This Braves spring holds pre cious few real positional battles worth a long, lingering glance. Perhaps that’s a sign your little rebooted baseball team is all grown up. It will be nice to see if Cole Hamels really does exist and whether he eventually can make it back to Atlanta under his own power. Watching the King Felix experiment should be better than most reality program ming, whether it affects the Braves’ rotation. The top tier of starters seems set. And we can almost issue an ironclad guar antee that Julio Teheran will not be this season’s opening-day pitcher. There are young’uns to sort out and put in their place, maybe one or two of them will even make a brash push to escape the minors. But the Braves don’t really need any of them to step forward immedi ately. That’s a good place to be. As for the bullpen, well, all they require in there is one of those deli take-a-number dis pensers. So stacked and stocked are they, just let them conduct a daily random drawing to see which inning each will work. But then there’s third base, the corner of concern now that Josh Donaldson got a better offer. There’s a real reason for spring training, an intra-club- house competition that stands above the rest. Introducing the candidates, as they stand now: It did not, could not, last. Major league pitchers decided to get all canny on him, and Riley did not respond in kind. The curse of the strikeout weighed heavily upon him (he ultimately struck out on 36% of his at-bats in 2019). In his last month, after returning from a knee issue, Riley hit .132 with one home run and was left off the postseason roster. Early in spring, Riley has celebrated a newer, more effi cient swing, which translated into laymen’s terms means that when swinging a bat he won’t look like one of those inflatable tube figures swaying in front of a car dealership. “I’m very confident,” he says now. Associated Press Former Georgia quar terback Jake Fromm, who will participate in the NFL scouting com bine next week, must show NFL teams that he has the necessary arm strength to be successful in the pros, according to ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper. “The only thing that is going to be on display there, he’s going to have to show that (he has) the necessary arm strength,” Kiper said on a confer ence call Wednesday. “Because that’s going to determine if he is Aaron Murray (or) is he Andy Dalton? I think that’s what everybody is trying to figure out. ... Maybe he’s more like Aaron Murray? Well, maybe he’s more like Andy Dalton? If he’s Andy Dalton, you’re talking about a second-round or early second-round type quarterback. “If he’s Aaron Murray you are talking about a later-round quarterback who is now playing in the XFL. So, again, that’s where people will have to make that decision based on arm strength.” Murray is a former Georgia quarterback (2009-13), who was taken by the Chiefs in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL draft. He’s spent time with the Cardinals, Eagles and Rams of the NFL, but has never played in a regular- season game. He also played quarterback for the Atlanta Legends of the defunct Alliance of American Football league and currently is with the Tampa Bay Vipers of the XFL. Dalton, who played at TCU, was taken in the second round (35th over all) of the 2011 draft by the Bengals. He started 133 games over nine sea sons for the Bengals and went to three Pro Bowls. He lost his job last season and currently is on the trading block. Fromm will go down as one of the more pro lific passers in Georgia history. Fromm’s 8,224 career passing yards rank fourth on UGA’s all-time list. His 78 career touch down passes put him in second place on UGA’s all-time list, and he ranks fourth and fifth, respec tively, on UGA’s lists of career completions and attempts. Fromm led UGA to 37 wins in 43 games over three seasons, starting all but the first one, when he replaced an injured Jacob Eason during the third offensive series of the game. The Bulldogs won an SEC championship, a Rose Bowl and three SEC East titles during Fromm’s career. Eason, who has a big arm and transferred to Washington, is projected to go 23rd overall to New England in Kiper’s latest mock draft. “We know he has the smarts,” Kiper said of Fromm. “We know he has the leadership. We know he’s an accurate passer. Forget the num bers (from 2019), he lost all of his receivers going into this year. Ryan Newman was released from a Florida hospital on Wednesday, two days after his frightening crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Roush Fenway Racing released a photo of Newman leaving a Daytona Beach hospital hold ing the hands of his two young daugh ters. The announce ment came just a few hours after the team said he was fully alert and walking around the hospital. The team said the 42-year-old Indiana native “continues to show great improvement.” The team added that “true to his jovial nature, he has also been jok ing around with staff, friends and family while playing with his two daughters” and included a photo of New man standing in a hospital gown, smiling with his arms around the girls. Newman was injured Monday night when he crashed while leading NAS- CAR’s biggest race. Contact from Ryan Blaney sent Newman spinning into the wall and his Ford went airborne, where it was then hit by Corey LaJoie in the driver side door. The car landed on its roof, slid across Daytona Interna tional Speedway and came to a rest upside down and on fire, with gasoline pouring out of the vehicle. It took a safety team nearly 20 minutes to remove Newman from the car and he was taken to a Daytona Beach hospital. Details of Newman’s inju ries have not been released. The team also has not announced who will drive the No. 6 Ford at Las Vegas this weekend. Blaney and LaJoie have stepped back from racing to process their roles in the accident. LaJoie climbed from his own burning car and dropped to his knees on the track, learning only after he was checked at the care center that Newman was injured. Blaney seemed distraught as he paced beside his car following his second-place finish to Denny Hamlin, fellow driver Bubba Wallace, one of Blaney’s best friends, said he spent time with Blaney on Tuesday and advised him to stay off social media for a few days. “He’s holding up, of course devastated and bummed about the situa tion,” Wallace posted on Twitter. “Had to sit there and explain to him could’ve hap pened to him or any of us in the field. IT’S RACING. Just unfortunate to be on either end of it.” Wallace also praised Blaney’s atttempt to push Newman to the win in a move of brand alliance for Ford. When Blaney tried to lock onto Newman’s bum per to give him a shove the cars didn’t align properly and Newman was instead hooked into a spin. “I know Ford should be proud to have him under their banner because he was so content on pushing his Ford teammate to win the biggest race of the year,” Wallace wrote. “Which makes it worse (because) a simple selfless gesture went south in the blink of an eye.” Newman HUNTING-FISHING CAMPING-HIKING-BIKING Saturday, March 14th 10am - 5pm Gainesville Civic Center 830 Green St NE, Gainesville, GA 30501 For more information, please contact Leah Nelson at lnelson@gainesvilletimes.com 770-535-6330 PRESENTED BY Sftnes gainesvilletimes.com L J VOTE NOW THROUGH THE 24TH VOTING FOR OUR TEACHER OF THE MONTH CONTEST IS NOW OPEN. Be sure to give a shout-out to your favorite teacher. You can vote once per day. The selected teacher will receive a plaque and $200 in school supplies. Winner will be recognized in The Times. VOTE TODAY AT WWW.CAI N ES VILLETIM ES.COM/TEACH E R
