There's been talk recently about whether the Rangers' pitching is actually better this year than last, or if it's a product of an improved defense.

One recent conversation, between Adam J. Morris and someone we'll just call J. Wales, went something like this:

AJM: Run prevention is better. Pitching, not really.

J. Wales: The defense is much better and a big reason this team gives up fewer runs but to point blank say the pitching really isn’t any better is among the very dumbest things ever said on this message board.

I was interested in this myself, so I delved into good ol' FanGraphs, who brought the statistical noise. The stat that would best capture this, in my estimation, is FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching. Dave Cameron explains it well:

FIP removes defense from the equation by only looking at three factors that a pitcher has demonstrable control over - walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed. By using FIP, we’re isolating the pitcher’s core abilities and evaluating him based on those skills. Now, we’re not claiming that FIP captures everything a pitcher is responsible for. It is not the perfect context-neutral pitcher run modeler - we know that. But when confronted with a choice of including way too many non-pitcher inputs or leaving out a few minor actual pitcher inputs, the latter was the better choice.

On to the numbers:

Texas' 2008 ERA: 5.37

Texas' 2008 FIP: 4.83

Difference: +0.53

Texas' defense cost the Rangers pitching staff an extra 0.53 on its collective ERA. But what about 2009?

Texas' 2009 ERA: 4.44

Texas' 2009 FIP: 4.91

Difference: -0.47

The Rangers' defense has shaved an extra 0.47 off the pitching staff's collective ERA. Meanwhile, the FIP is a full 0.08 higher in 2009 than it was in 2008.

So, the defense is markedly better in 2009 while the pitching has actually grown worse. Let's please put the "Texas' pitching is much, much better!" meme to rest, please.