Looking back at just how the NL Central was won

It probably started in spring training.

No, not with pitcher Ryan Dempster predicting a World Series title for the Cubs.

The Cubs already had a good team when Dempster made his bold proclamation. But it got a little better near the end of camp when the Toronto Blue Jays let an outfielder named Reed Johnson go, and general manager Jim Hendry pounced, literally within minutes of Johnson's name hitting the wires.

"We talked about what holes we had to fill," Cubs chairman Crane Kenney said. "In center field, we hoped that Felix (Pie) could help us. But we knew we needed a right-handed bat, and he went out and got Reed Johnson.

"Look at the end of the year. Is anybody going to be second-guessing that Reed is really the best right-handed free agent available with a week before spring training (ended)?

"People know that Reed drove himself to Mesa so that at the moment, literally 12:01, that he was available to be a Cub, he was on our field. - That says a lot about him as a player."

And it says a lot about how the Cubs were able to go from a division champion that had to come from way back last year to a division champion that led almost wire to wire in 2008.

No, Johnson didn't put the Cubs over the top, but he helped in one of several key factors in how the NL Central was won:

Deep depth: The Cubs believe in this Yogi Berra-ism. They say their depth is much deeper this year than last.

"Without a question, more depth," first baseman Derrek Lee said. "More depth in the rotation. Adding Rich Harden was huge. A guy like (catcher) Geovany Soto comes up. That puts another power hitter sixth, seventh, eighth sometimes. That's a huge difference.

"Jim Edmonds, Reed Johnson. Just guys stepping up all over the place."

Hendry picked up Edmonds in May, giving the Cubs a left-right platoon in center.

"Picking up Jimmy down the road, people thought it was a gamble," Kenney said. "But when you know the player, it's not a gamble with Edmonds."

Rotation boost: The Cubs suffered a blow in early May, when lefty Rich Hill was sent to the minor leagues after the command problems that bothered him in spring training continued well into the season.

In July, Hendry packaged four expendable players and sent them to Oakland for Harden, the Athletics' ace. Shoulder woes have hampered Harden, but he has gone 5-1 with a 1.66 ERA with the Cubs.

"One of the things that's important is starting pitching, and we have good starting pitching," manager Lou Piniella said. "Starting pitching allows you to win postseason games.

"And when your starting pitchers can go deep into the ballgame and you've got a couple real nice pieces to finish the ballgame, especially with days off, you've got an advantage."

The Lou factor: Piniella may not be great at navigating American's interstate highways, as his circuitous route to Cincinnati proved, but he knows how to get a team through a season.

Crazy-like-a-fox Piniella admitted during Saturday's celebration that he knew this team was good.

"I've known this for a while," he said. "In my heart of hearts, I've known it for a while. But again, this is a business where you've got to stay on the edge. Once you get comfortable, once you get sassy, you get beat.

"So you've got to have a team that's always on the edge. And that's the best way to play. You can't get to the point where you feel, 'It's within our reach and it's ours.' It doesn't work that way."

Piniella kept his team on edge during the recent road trip, when it was finishing a skid of 8 losses in nine games. He gave them a pep talk in Cincinnati, where they lost two of three. He was so upset after the series finale that he blew off the media.

The team went from there to St. Louis, where it lost the first game, prompting a postgame explosion in which Piniella said his team was playing not to lose instead of to win.

That, too, was calculated.

"With our team in Cincinnati, I gave them a nice little lovable meeting, and it didn't work very well," he said. "So I recognized that, and I used the media. Well, you've used me all year."

On-base mania: The Cubs' front office, with a push from Piniella, finally came around to the idea that walks and on-base percentage are not only good things, but they are essential to winning.

All season long, the Cubs have led the NL in walks, OBP and - drum roll, please - runs scored. In fact, they scored more than 800 runs this year for the first time since 1998 and for only the eighth time since 1900.

The character issue: Nobody really knows how much "character" and "chemistry" count on a baseball team. But they probably don't hurt.

The Cubs say they like what the club showed this year in the character department, citing a comeback win over Colorado back in May and last Thursday's big rally to beat the Brewers.

"Oh, wow, there were a lot of moments this year," Lee said. "I think you saw the character of this team against Colorado. We came back, I think it was 8-0. Just the other day, in the ninth, two outs, Soto hits a big 3-run homer.

"I think all throughout the season we had moments that showed the character of this team and the ability that we have.

"We played nine innings every day, no matter what the situation was. We had a lot of comeback wins."