In three of the last four years, the National League Central has produced two of the senior circuit’s four playoff teams. In each of those three years, the team that finished in third place has won at least 85 games.

This is a brutally competitive division, featuring the league’s best lineup in St. Louis and its best pitching staff in Chicago. Even perennial also-rans like the Brewers and Reds have some interesting players, and are capable of doing some damage if they get a few breaks. Here’s a look at the key issues facing each of the N.L. Central teams as they begin spring training.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

The Cardinals haven’t received the credit they’re due for having the guts to make radical changes to a team that dominated the league last year. With a new catcher, a new middle infield, and a new ace in Mark Mulder, the Cardinals are a better team on paper right now than they were at this time a year ago.

This doesn’t mean they’re actually going to perform better on the field. One of the keys to the Cardinals’ success since 2000 has been their ability to coax excellent pitching from retreads like Woody Williams, Chris Carpenter, Ken Bottenfield, and Darryl Kile. Coincidentally or not, 2000 was the first year catcher Mike Matheny, who carries a Gold Glove behind the plate and a rolled-up newspaper at it, played for the Cards.

Matheny is now in San Francisco, with 22-year-old Yadier Molina replacing him. There’s no reason to think Molina won’t be a good defender, but if Matheny’s intangible skills at handling pitchers and calling games turn out to be half as valuable as his coaches and teammates have long claimed, pitchers like Carpenter and Jeff Suppan may turn back into pumpkins.

Another thing to keep an eye on is Rick Ankiel’s progress. He hasn’t been a factor since succumbing to Steve Blass disease in the 2000 playoffs, but Ankiel is still just 25, and as talented as any young pitcher in the game. In 33 2/3 professional innings last year, he struck out 32 and walked just three batters. If he’s overcome his problems, Ankiel could decide the pennant as a force out of the bullpen or in the rotation.

CHICAGO CUBS

There isn’t much to like about blowhard Cubs manager Dusty Baker; when not waxing racist, overusing his pitchers, running good players and great broadcast teams out of town, or starring in obnoxious television ads, Baker is busy ruining young players’ careers.

Witness the left-field situation for the Cubs. With incumbent Moises Alou gone, Baker must choose between starting pinch-hitter Todd Hollandsworth, second baseman Jerry Hairston, or Jason Dubois, who smacked 57 extra-base hits in Triple-A last year in only 386 at bats. Given that in a month on the big-league roster last year, Dubois was given only 23 at-bats (in which he hit .217), and that Baker has gone on at length about how “Holly” will be given every chance to win the job, it’s clear that the manager’s veteran fetish will prevail over the needs of his team.

Even more hilariously, Baker, who lacks an established closer, is using the spring to choose between LaTroy Hawkins, who blew the team’s playoff chances with his inability to close out games, and Joe Borowski, who sported an 8.02 ERA last year. Veteran starter Ryan Dempster, who showed promise in a relief role last year, will be kept in the back of the skipper’s mind despite the stated preference of GM Jim Hendry that Dempster be given a clear shot to try out his electric stuff in the ninth inning. Anyone who wants to watch a multiple-time Manager of the Year do a worse job of running a team than a random Azerbaijani should pay close attention to the words and wisdom of Dusty.

HOUSTON ASTROS

The Astros advanced to within a few outs of the World Series last year, but they may be challenged to reach third place this year. With the losses of Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent, and the continued aging of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, they’re just not the same team they were in October.

The key to the team’s season is Lance Berkman, who last year posted a .450 on-base average and tore up his knee in a church football game in November. He may only miss a month, but he could also miss the whole season if his rehab hits a setback. He is, by far, the best player on the Astros – and that includes Roger Clemens – so the status of his recovery is what’s keeping the Astros brain trust awake at night right now.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

No one’s really noticed – the Brewers are hardly a glamour franchise – but General Manager Doug Melvin and his staff have done a brilliant job of rebuilding one of the game’s perennial sad-sack teams. This off-season, they flipped moderately useful players Dan Kolb, Scott Podesdnik, and Keith Ginter while at the height of their value for good prospects and established slugger Carlos Lee.

In the meantime, the Brewers have assembled a fine farm system that looks ready to bear fruit. The team’s aggressive promotion of first baseman Prince Fielder and second baseman Rickie Weeks, and their wise policy of avoiding long-term commitments to mediocre veterans, makes it looks as if these two will be given major league roles as soon as they prove ready for them, which could be as soon as this summer.

Keep an eye out to see how long it is before Fielder and Weeks are cut from major league camp; if they hang on a while, it will be a good sign that the Brewers think their future is nearly here.

Of equal importance to the team’s rebuilding plans are negotiations with ace Ben Sheets over a long-term deal. If they can secure his services for several years, they will be well poised to make a serious run at the playoffs soon.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES

The Pirates certainly are a boring team. There’s no reason to think they’ll do anything other than finish a few games under .500, just as they do every single year. They have some exciting young talent – outfielder Jason Bay won the 2004 Rookie of the Year while starter Oliver Perez led the league in strikeouts per nine innings – along with plenty of reliably average old players like Matt Lawton and Mark Redman.

One area in which they could really help themselves, and which bears watching, is at catcher. Having traded away stalwart Jason Kendall for a pile of magic beans, the team doesn’t really have a backstop, other than the decrepit Benito Santiago.

But Craig Wilson, who hit for an .853 OPS as a first baseman/outfielder last year, came up as a catcher, and there would be no harm in seeing if he could at least handle 50 or so starts behind the plate. That would give the Pirates a chance to get an extra bat into the lineup, while giving their stronger division rivals one more reason to be irritated by the thought of a game in Pittsburgh.

CINCINNATI REDS

While the Reds aren’t better than the Pirates or Brewers, they certainly have more talent. The problem is how it’s distributed. A colossally stupid contract handed to first baseman Sean Casey several years ago means that the Reds have to play the monstrous Adam Dunn in the outfield; the unfortunate problem is that the team has four other good outfielders, at least three of whom (Wily Mo Pena, Austin Kearns, and Ken Griffey) are better hitters than Casey.

Somewhat luckily, Griffey will probably have torn a hamstring by the time the season rolls around; even so, the thing to watch in Reds camp, as always, is the contortions the team has to go through to stuff all its talent onto the field. You would think they’d figure out one of these years that they should trade someone for a shortstop or a quality young pitcher. But if they did that, they just wouldn’t be the Reds.

This is the second of a six-part series on baseball’s divisions. On Friday, the N.L. West.