Zackcast Insights
Insights
Original explainers from our desk on how sports coverage is produced and what the numbers inside it measure. Written for this site — not summarized or mirrored from other publishers.
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How to read a box score
The box score is the most honest document in sports and the most commonly skimmed. Here is what each block is actually telling you.
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What advanced stats actually measure
EPA, xG, WAR and the rest are not magic and they are not nonsense. Each one answers a narrow question — and most arguments about them are arguments about the question.
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What a win-loss record hides
Standings are the first thing you look at and the last thing you should trust in September. Three things move a record besides quality.
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How to read an injury report
Injury news is the most consequential reporting in sports and the most carefully worded. The language is a negotiation, and it can be decoded.
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Reading betting odds as information
Odds are now printed alongside the score. They are a useful forecast and a poor recommendation — and the difference is worth understanding whether or not you bet.
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How to spot a machine-generated news article
Synthetic articles are fluent, confident, and specifically wrong. Fluency is no longer evidence of effort.
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What a correction tells you about a newsroom
Corrections look like failures. Read properly, they are the strongest quality signal a publication emits.
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Why the same story shows up under ten different headlines
Wire copy, syndication, and headline testing explain most of the duplication in your feed.
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How to vet a news source you have never heard of
A ten-minute audit that separates a small real newsroom from a content farm wearing one as a costume.
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How to evaluate any news app — including this one
Aggregation and journalism are different jobs. Problems begin when a product blurs which one it is doing.
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Building a calmer news diet
You almost certainly do not need more sources. You need rules about attention.
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How to read a headline without getting fooled
Headlines are written to win a click. Here is how to extract the claim underneath one.
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Our editorial standards
What we publish, what we refuse to publish, and how to hold us to it.