The champs are here!

Starting tomorrow, the Tigers will host a the reigning World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, for a three game series at Comerica Park.

Expectations were high for both teams entering the season, but both find themselves in third place of their respective divisions. The Tigers and Cardinals have quite a historic past, meeting in the World Series on three different occasions, the most recent being in 2006. For what it’s worth, the Cardinals have won two of those three World Series meetings.

The best match up of the series is likely to take place tomorrow, where Justin Verlander will face off against Lance Lynn. For as good as Verlander has been (6-4 2.66 ERA), Lynn has been better (10-2 2.42 ERA).

Another exciting thing to watch for this series, is when Jacob Turner makes his 2012 season debut for the Tigers on Thursday. Turner is considered to be one of the top prospects in all of baseball, and was likely the favorite to be the Tigers fifth starter to begin the season, but tendinitis on the shoulder prevented that from happening.

Perhaps the Tigers are trying to showcase Turner, in hopes that they can include him as part of an upcoming trade. There are plenty of teams who will be seeking pitching when the trade deadline rolls around, so there would be no shortage of suitors for him. I don’t know if that’s what the Tigers are thinking, but you can’t help but wonder if it’s in the back of their minds.

As far as interleague play goes, this will be the toughest challenge that the Tigers will have had for the year. Detroit has looked well as of late, winning three straight series. In their last ten games, the Cardinals have gone 5-5.