A.J. Preller would probably be the most annoying guy to play against in Settlers of Catan. Like, nice job man, you have all the sheep in the game... now what? In this metaphor, the sheep are bullpen arms. If you didn't know, the San Diego Padres already had a well of elite talent in their pen before the trade deadline, then went and got the best reliever available at the deadline, Mason Miller, just for the hell of it, I guess.
Or maybe it wasn't just for the hell of it, because the Padres have officially overtaken the Dodgers for the top spot in the NL West, and there's a pretty drastic difference between the Padres' bullpen play during their hot streak, and the Dodgers bullpen during their cold one. On their four-game losing streak, the Dodgers' bullpen has suffered the loss in three of them, and given up at least a run in all four. Meanwhile, on the Padres' five-game winning streak, the bullpen has given up one run total, and it was given up by Robert Suárez — so pretty much a fluke.
About as stark a difference as possible between the two clubs fighting to win the NL West, and it could be what determines the race in the end.
Padres bullpen might propel them to NL West title
The Dodgers are defending World Series champions and returned pretty much the same lineup and perhaps an even better (in theory) pitching rotation from a year ago. And still, as we pass the midway point of August, I feel more confident in the San Diego Padres finishing on top of this division with their ironclad bullpen being perhaps the biggest reason for that confidence.
There's just no fun option for opposing offenses. Even if you knock a Padres starter out of a game early (which has been tough in its own right recently), your prize is facing Jason Adam or Adrian Morejon or Wandy Peralta or Jeremiah Estrada or Mason Miller and then Robert Suárez in the ninth. Brutal.
It also stems from the Padres roster also being really dang good. They actually added more bats than they did arms, with Ryan O'Hearn, Ramon Laureano and Freddy Fermin coming over to deepen the offensive pop the team already gets from its stars. So it's not like the Dodgers have the offense while the Padres have the pitching right now; the Padres kind of have both in spades.