A position-by-position look at the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers going into the World Series, starting Saturday night at Comerica Park:

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First Base

Cardinals: Albert Pujols. He has a great shot to win his second straight MVP award after another monster season. Pujols is at his best in the clutch, with 19 of his 49 homers providing the go-ahead hit, and he batted .397 with runners in scoring position. Bothered by a sore hamstring, he hit .324 with two homers and four RBIs during the NL playoffs.

Tigers: Carlos Guillen. An underrated hitter, Guillen is a tough out in the middle of Detroit's lineup, batting .320 this season. Makes contact and also can hit for some power as shown by his 19 HRs and 41 doubles. Normally a shortstop, he played plenty of first base in the ALCS against Oakland and figures to do so again early in the World Series because Sean Casey is coming off a calf injury.

Edge: Cardinals.

Second Base

Cardinals: Ronnie Belliard. The team's biggest late-season pickup batted .316 with 4 RBIs during the playoffs. He had a superb all-around division series against San Diego, hitting .462 and making a handful of dazzling defensive plays. Belliard disappointed at the plate for the Cardinals during the regular season with a .237 average in 54 games.

Tigers: Placido Polanco. The man who makes the Tigers go, Polanco's injury in August started Detroit on its second-half slide. Polanco was the ALCS MVP after going 9-for-17 (.529) against the Athletics. He's a contact hitter who rarely strikes out.

Edge: Tigers.

Shortstop

Cardinals: David Eckstein. A spark plug in the leadoff slot, Eckstein returned to the lineup after missing more than month with a strained muscle on his left side and a hamstring injury. He lacks power and is not a base-stealing threat. He was banged-up during the NLCS against the Mets, but stayed in the lineup.

Tigers: Ramon Santiago or Neifi Perez. Casey's injury and Guillen's ensuing switch to first means the Tigers probably have to plug in a light bat at shortstop. Santiago and Perez combined to go 0-for-11 in the ALCS.

Edge: Cardinals.

Third Base

Cardinals: Scott Rolen. He made his fifth All-Star team this year and hit .296 with 22 homers and 95 RBIs. But he batted .188 without an RBI during the playoffs and is still bothered by fatigue and soreness in his surgically repaired left shoulder. Rolen looked better at the plate late in the NLCS. He's still one of the top defensive third basemen in the game.

Tigers: Brandon Inge. A former catcher who has developed into a very good fielding third baseman. Offers good power from the No. 9 hole with 27 regular-season homers. One of 10 players left from the 119-loss team in 2003. He hit .333 with 1 HR and 3 RBIs in the ALCS after going 2-for-15 in the first round.

Edge: Cardinals.

Catcher

Cardinals: Yadier Molina. A defensive standout who struggled at the plate this season _ until the playoffs, when he batted .333 with two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs. His tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning of Game 7 against the Mets sent St. Louis to the World Series. Behind the plate, he threw out 41 per cent of potential basestealers this season and had seven pickoffs.

Tigers: Ivan Rodriguez. A World Series champion with Florida in 2003, Pudge is one of the Tigers' most experienced players. Not quite the force he was when he won the AL MVP in 1999, Rodriguez still has one of the best arms in the game and can be a tough out at the plate. He batted only .172 with a HR and 4 RBIs during the playoffs.

Edge: Tigers.

Left Field

Cardinals: Preston Wilson or Chris Duncan. Wilson is not the offensive threat he once was but is a better defender than Duncan, the son of Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan. Chris Duncan can be unsteady in the field but hit 18 homers after the all-star break, a rookie record for the team. He also homered as a pinch-hitter in the NLCS.

Tigers: Craig Monroe. Another all-or-nothing hitter in Detroit's lineup. Struck out 126 times but hit 28 home runs during the regular season. He also batted .300 with three HRs, three doubles and seven RBIs in the playoffs and made some nice plays in the outfield.

Edge: Tigers.

Centre Field

Cardinals: Jim Edmonds. He started only four times over the last six weeks of the regular season due to post-concussion syndrome, but stayed in the lineup during the playoffs. A sore foot is his biggest problem now. Edmonds batted .257 with two HRs and six RBIs in the NL playoffs.

Tigers: Curtis Granderson. He's a bellwether for this team. He strikes out often (174 times) but also brings a combination of speed and power. When he's going well, as he did during the first two rounds, Detroit's offence is much more dangerous. Granderson batted .313 with three HRs, seven RBIs and seven runs during the playoffs.

Edge: Cardinals.

Right Field

Cardinals: Juan Encarnacion. He hit .278 with 19 homers and 79 RBIs in 153 games during the regular season, just three off his career high of 156 games when he won the World Series with Florida in 2003. He batted .222 with two triples and four RBIs during the playoffs. Encarnacion must help provide protection in the lineup for Pujols so Detroit can't pitch around the 2005 NL MVP every time.

Tigers: Magglio Ordonez. Finally healthy after years of injuries, Ordonez is the most feared bat in Detroit's lineup. His home run won Game 4 against Oakland and clinched an ALCS sweep. Ordonez can have problems at times in the field. Easy to spot with his shaggy hair.

Edge: Tigers.

Designated Hitter

Tigers: Sean Casey. Acquired during the season from Cincinnati, Casey is not a prototypical No. 3 hitter. He has little power but did have a strong first-round series against the Yankees. Then he injured his left calf in Game 1 of the ALCS against Oakland and missed the rest of the series. But he is expected back against the Cardinals, probably as the DH for the first two games. Then, the Tigers will decide whether he can play first base in St. Louis.

Cardinals: Scott Spiezio. A key member of the Angels' 2002 championship team, he played five positions in a comeback season after being a non-roster invitee to spring training. Spiezio hit so well he batted cleanup in seven games. He got some big hits against the Mets, and he's always been a clutch post-season performer.

Edge: Even.

Starting Pitchers

Cardinals: RH Anthony Reyes, RH Jeff Weaver, RH Chris Carpenter, RH Jeff Suppan. Reyes is a 25-year-old rookie who struggled during his NLCS start against the Mets, but he gets the call in Game 1. Weaver surfaced from a miserable year, going 3-0 in his last five regular-season starts, then pitched extremely well in the playoffs. Carpenter won the NL Cy Young Award last year and is the team's unquestioned ace with 36 wins the past two seasons. But he won't go until Game 3. Suppan, the NLCS MVP, had a 2.34 ERA after the All-Star break.

Tigers: RH Justin Verlander, LH Kenny Rogers, LH Nate Robertson, RH Jeremy Bonderman. With a week of rest, the Tigers got a chance to set up their powerful rotation however they wanted. Verlander is a rookie who went 17-9 with a 3.63 ERA during the regular season. Rogers has pitched 15 scoreless innings during the post-season, going 2-0. Bonderman also shut down the Yankees in the first round, and Robertson is underrated.

Edge: Tigers.

Relief Pitchers

Cardinals: RH Adam Wainwright, RH Braden Looper, LH Tyler Johnson, LH Randy Flores, RH Josh Hancock, RH Brad Thompson, RH Josh Kinney. Wainwright has excelled as the stand-in closer for injured Jason Isringhausen, who underwent hip surgery last month, and is likely to hold that spot at the start of next season. The young bullpen has done an outstanding job throughout the post-season.

Tigers: RH Todd Jones, RH Joel Zumaya, RH Fernando Rodney, LH Jamie Walker, RH Jason Grilli, LH Wil Ledezma, RH Zach Miner. Zumaya, coming back from a wrist injury, is a rookie who consistently tops 100 mph on the radar gun. He is one of the most exciting pitchers in the game. Jones, who throws a steady stream of strikes, blew only five saves this season but it might be easier to rally off him than Zumaya or Rodney.

Edge: Tigers.

Bench

Cardinals: OF Preston Wilson or OF Chris Duncan, INF Aaron Miles, OF John Rodriguez, C Gary Bennett, OF So Taguchi. A strength of the team. Taguchi is 4-for-4 with two HRs and a double during the post-season and could get a start in the World Series. He's often used as a defensive replacement. Wilson and Miles got regular duty this year due to injuries to Edmonds and Eckstein. Rodriguez had 11 pinch hits and Bennett is a solid backup.

Tigers: OF Marcus Thames, OF Alexis Gomez, INF Omar Infante, INF Neifi Perez or INF Ramon Santiago, C Vance Wilson. Thames hit 26 homers in the regular season. Gomez was given some surprising playing time in the ALCS and he had a big series, going 4-for-9 (.444) with 1 HR and 4 RBIs. Other than that, Detroit has mostly defenders and pinch-runners at its disposal.

Edge: Cardinals.

Manager

Cardinals: Tony La Russa. One of his best managing efforts with a team that lost Isringhausen and No. 2 starter Mark Mulder, and went without Edmonds and Eckstein for long stretches. When the Cardinals were on the verge of a historic collapse in September, La Russa was the picture of tranquility, and that might have allowed the team to pull out of its downward spiral.

Tigers: Jim Leyland. Returned to managing after a six-year hiatus and showed he still knows what buttons to push. He got on his team in April after an early slump, stayed positive during second-half struggles and remained confident in a first-round matchup with the Yankees. He has this Tigers team on a roll. Leyland and La Russa are old friends.

Edge: Tigers.

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Pick: Tigers in 5.