Milwaukee, WI
Can the Chicago Cubs keep the offensive momentum after Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers?
As the temperatures start to heat up, the question around the Chicago Cubs is: when will the bats heat up as well?
In a 5-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, the Cubs didn’t register their first hit until the third inning when left fielder Ian Happ singled on a line drive to center. Starting Cubs pitcher Javier Assad threw 94 pitches over six innings with four hits, four walks, four strikeouts and no runs.
Leading up to Sunday’s game against the division rival, the Cubs were slashing .236/.315/.390 as a team, where they rank 19th, 13th, and 14th, respectively, in the majors.
With Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki out of the lineup, the offense has been a lingering question for a couple of weeks and their absences show in the slim margins — except for that 17-run shutout by the Red Sox on April 27 — by which the team has won and lost. Suzuki and Bellinger have been ramping up for their returns and were running and hitting over the weekend. They’re expected to be back in the lineup within the coming days to help stabilize the offense.
Through the last five games, shortstop Dansby Swanson has an average of .067 and didn’t register a hit Friday or Saturday.
“I think with Dansby he has such a track record that we can kind of go back to. And we’re always trying to just kind of maintain a lot of his movements and some of the things that he’s working on approach-wise,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said Sunday. “With some of the guys that have that track record, we try not to get too far away from what they’re really good at and what they’ve done really good in the past. There’s always little tweaks, little mechanical things that we are always kind of monitoring, but it’s usually not that far away. And I think that’s kind of where we feel with him right now.”
Photos: Chicago Cubs 5, Milwaukee Brewers 0
Kelly shared that despite Swanson’s recent numbers, he has encouraged the All-Star to remain confident and know that “each day is a new day and he has some way to impact the team.” Swanson, who has recorded a career high in ground balls and whiffs, broke through Sunday hitting a home run to center field in the sixth inning, bringing his season total to four and likely lifting his confidence a little.
“We’re all still human, right? And nobody wants to perform better than us. And at times, you just get so lost in results and numbers and you forget that the main job is to just show up as yourself and be yourself and be committed to who God made you to be,” Swanson said postgame.
“The biggest thing is just being connected. When you’re connected good things happen and this year has been a lot of disconnected moments in my swing and we’ve been working hard day and night almost to figure it out. I think today was a good step in the right direction,” Swanson said.
With late-game pitching an issue over the current 16-game stretch, the Cubs are desperately in need of some clutch hitting. So what exactly are they doing to try to get out of their collective hitting slump entering the third month of the season?
In their assessments of players’ hitting mechanics, some key markers Kelly and his staff look at are stride length, stride height and hand placement.
“There’s a ton of technology, there’s a ton of information for all these guys on their own to go look at and then we have a time in-house as well. (What) we talk about as hitting coaches a lot is we’re going to take the complex as coaches and try to make it really simple for the players,” Kelly said. “And a lot of times it’s just ‘hey you gotta be on the fastball in the middle of the zone and make sure you’re on time for that and use the big part of the field.’ Easier said than done but a lot of times that’s the approach you have to take to make it really simple for guys.”
Thanks to some promising starting pitching, the Cubs’ offensive slump hasn’t impacted their place in the standings, where they’re tied with the Brewers for the National League Central lead. But with upcoming games against the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves and the remaining division opponents, the Cubs need to improve their hitting — whether it be mechanics, how they see the ball or confidence — or their win total could look as questionable as their swings.
Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam talks greater involvement, Giannis future
Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam says that he will have a greater involvement with the team and that includes the decision on if to re-sign Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Milwaukee Bucks know their placement in the 2026 NBA Draft, slotted No. 10 for their first lottery pick in a decade. Who are some of the possible selections at that spot when June 23 rolls around?
Check out what the first post-lottery wave of mock drafts has to say, most of them pointing to same prospect, that being Nate Ament of Tennessee, a 6-10 freshman small forward.
Nate Ament, forward, Tennessee
From Spencer Woo of ESPN: “While Ament’s stock has slipped from an early top-five projection, he had productive stretches this season within a tricky team context and has room to help himself in workouts. Although scouts are split on whether he has star potential or projects better as a long-term supporting player, there is still plenty of intrigue around Ament in the lottery. As a tall skill player with shotmaking upside, Ament fits a player archetype that teams often love to swing on. As Milwaukee considers a post-Antetokounmpo future, a malleable upside swing such as Ament could be a fit.”
Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo! Sports: “The Bucks should take a swing to jump-start their new era, whether or not Giannis Antetokounmpo is part of it. Players who can handle, shoot off the dribble, and stand at 6-foot-10 don’t grow on trees. This physical foundation kept Ament in lottery consideration even after a dreadful start to his freshman season when he struggled to score efficiently and make an impact defensively. But over the second half of the year for Tennessee, he flipped a switch and shots began to fall. He averaged 23.8 points over a six-game stretch in January and February that reminded everyone why he was a top recruit in the country. Then he dealt with an ankle injury that ruined his momentum entering March and he severely struggled during the tournament. Bucks general manager Jon Horst has never been afraid to take risks though. If Ament pans out, it could look like a stroke of genius.”
Gary Parrish of CBS Sports: “Ament had an up-and-down freshman season for the Vols – but the upside isn’t hard to spot. Less than a year ago, the 2025 McDonald’s All-American was considered a possible top-five pick. So getting Ament here would be nice for a Bucks franchise that seems on the verge of rebuilding after presumably trading Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason.”
The Ringer: “Barring some transactional magic, this could be Milwaukee’s best bite at the talent apple in the draft for a while. The Bucks don’t currently have control over a first-round pick until 2031. If Giannis Antetokounmpo decides it’s time to move on, this roster will be rudderless and talent-deprived. If Giannis decides not to move on, it’ll have a rudder but still won’t go anywhere. Less than ideal, but that makes this a ‘best player available’ scenario, or rather ‘best wager available.’ There are definitely more stable options in this range, but Ament’s higher possible outcomes justify this pick. Ament fell short of expectations this past season, and he slid from top-five consideration as a result, but the jumbo-sized, smooth-moving ball handler is still a worthy bet here. Handling the ball at 6-foot-10 is an intriguing enough skill to instill some belief that he could develop into a quality asset. And the Bucks can take the risk given their circumstances.
Adam Finkelstein of CBS Sports: “Ament is a polarizing prospect with a wide range of outcomes on draft night. A late-blooming 6-foot-10 combo-forward who is fluid, has touch, and skill, he’s also inconsistent and needs to get stronger. While his freshman year was up and down, Ament’s overall arc has been linear, and there’s still glaring potential. That upside makes him a logical choice for a Milwaukee team that has a very uncertain future ahead of them.”
Brian Lewis of New York Post: “After the run on guards, taking an upside swing on a gifted developmental player here seems like a worthy gamble for a Bucks team that could be in full-on rebuild in a post-Giannis era.”
Two other names mentioned
From Eric Nehm of The Athletic: “This was an incredibly difficult pick to make without knowing what the Bucks are going to do with Giannis Antetokounmpo. If the 10-time All-Star forward remains in Milwaukee, it might make more sense to look at someone like Yaxel Lendeborg, who could make an impact right away and give the Bucks more size and skill. Instead, though, I went with Philon, who has a lot of offensive upside and could be protected on the defensive end by Ryan Rollins. Philon is an electrifying offensive player who shot 50 percent from the field and 39 percent from 3 while averaging 22 points, 3.5 rebounds and five assists per game last season.”
From Kurt Helin of NBC Sports: “The Bucks need all the backcourt help they can get, and Burries may not be flashy, but he does a lot of things well — he can play on and off the ball, can knock down catch-and-shoot jumpers but also attack closeouts, and he gets downhill off screens and has a midrange pull-up game.”
Brad Paisley (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE – Brad Paisley is scheduled to perform at the BMO Pavilion in Milwaukee on Sept. 4.
Ticket information
What we know:
The ticket pre-sale for Brad’s fan club members, Paisley Nation, begins on Tuesday, May 12 at 10 am. All tickets available at BradPaisley.com.
The tour will also offer a variety of VIP packages and experiences for fans to take their concert experience to the next level.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android
Packages vary but include premium seats, a guided backstage tour, VIP-exclusive gift item, early entry & more. VIP package contents vary depending on the selected offer. For more information, visit VIPnation.com.
The Source: The information in this post was provided by Live Nation.
Billionaire Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA club, is shown at Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, 2015. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday identified Edens as the victim of a billion-dollar extortion plot allegedly hatched by an ex-lover. File Photo by Andrew Gombert/EPA
May 10 (UPI) — Wes Edens, the billionaire co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and an owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, was the target of a billion-dollar extortion scheme allegedly perpetrated by an ex-lover, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
A spokesman for Edens, 64, confirmed to the newspaper that the financier is the unnamed alleged victim in a federal indictment brought against Changli “Sophia” Luo of New York City.
Edens, one of world’s most successful global investment management firm leaders with Fortress, has developed and owned businesses in real estate, transportation, infrastructure, health care, financial services, media and entertainment.
He is also a high-profile sports team owner, including the Bucks and soccer club Aston Villa of the English Premier League. He is credited turning the Bucks from a perennial cellar dweller into a champion squad over a five-year span, culminating in the 2021 NBA championship.
But he also fell victim to a lurid alleged “sextortion” scheme, his spokesman confirmed to the WSJ, admitting the Edens is the unnamed “Victim 1” cited an indictment filed last year in Manhattan federal court against Luo.
The indictment reportedly accuses her of trying to extort Victim 1 of more than $1 billion by threatening to release videos and photos of them engaged in sex. Prosecutors alleged Luo also threatened to contact the victim’s family members and business partners in a threat to destroy his fortune if he did not pay up.
According to the indictment, Luo was arrested June 14 at JFK International Airport as she tried to board a flight to China, the New York Post reported.
“Mr. Edens will be making no comment on the case as the indictment speaks for itself with respect to the charges against the defendant,” his spokesman told the Journal. “Mr. Edens expects to testify under oath at the upcoming trial.”
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