Relative Waiver Wire: Yusmeiro Petit, Nick Franklin

One very good streamer on the pitching side.

One potentially good streamer on the hitting side.

Good luck to fantasy baseball players who are trying to bring it home for Jerome … Williams. And to those who aren’t doing it for him. It’s fine. I guess.

SP Yusmeiro Petit, San Francisco Giants

Ownership: CBS 39% | Yahoo! 29% | ESPN 21.4%

Brilliantly, Karl de Vries recommended Petit to fantasy baseball players nearly a month ago. Since that post, the right-handed hurler has struck out 31 and walked only one in four starts (26 innings). Let’s hope that, if you took Karl’s advice, you were smart enough to skip Petit’s outing at Coors Field, which wasn’t worth the trouble. Otherwise, his outcomes in the traditional stats are quite good in that stretch (and in general this season).

Karl pointed out the reasons, in terms of Petit’s peripherals and pitches, as to why the Giant is so interesting. The dead-sexy writer figured that this pitcher would be a high-upside play in NL-only formats, at least. But there’s a perfectly good reason to rec him for his final couple of turns this regular season, despite his recent rises in ownership rates, and to do so for those in pretty much any league setup – shallow mixed leagues, daily games, etc.

Remaining sked: @SD, SD

I hope that you didn’t peek and, thus, spoil the surprise. The San Diego Padres! Twice! As shocking as it might have been that they were the leaders in runs scored since the All-Star break at one point last month, they’ve fallen to 21^st in that category, with a .300 wOBA, since the ASB in just a few weeks. When fantasy owners are looking for reliably unintimidating offense in a streaming option’s opponent, SD is usually at the top of their wish list. As intelligent and handsome as Karl is, he couldn’t have known, for certain, that Petit would line up to face the Friars’ woeful offense two times to close out the regular season. I never would have imagined that Petit would have me this excited – at any point, ever, really. It are a miracle!

The only thing that puts a damper on that remaining slate is Petit’s probable opposite number in those two starts: Andrew Cashner. Are you streaming for wins, or for bankable improvements in your ERA and WHIP as well as a nice boost in strikeouts? If you seek W’s, then maybe you look elsewhere. Given the matchups, it’s obviously feasible to believe that Petit stands reasonable chances to net one of those, too, though.

2B/SS Nick Franklin, Tampa Bay Rays

Ownership: CBS 7% | Yahoo! 1% | ESPN 0.0%

OMG! He, like, totally went 2-for-4 with a double, RBI, and run in his debut with the Rays last night! You just have to get him. (This is another repeat from me. I like him. What can I say?) You should definitely entrust the final week and a half of your title run to a player who has hit .217/.293/.362 in 468 major league plate appearances.

Joe Maddon said that he plans to juggle the infield in order to ensure that Franklin receives a good share of playing time in the season’s final week and a half. (They like him, too, see?) The club surely wouldn’t mind it if Franklin would impress the fan base, even by one-third of the amount that Drew Smyly has done so following their arrivals to the organization in the David Price trade. Many pundits were critical of the deal, believing that the Rays didn’t receive enough in return for the ace who now twirls it for the Detroit Tigers.

To be fair to Franklin, 23, in terms of evaluations of his heretofore MLB performance, the deck may have been stacked against him. His service time, which includes less than a full season’s worth of PAs, has come in a handful of different stints with his previous organization’s parent club. The Seattle Mariners aren’t known to be the best at the development of bats.

Franklin, formerly a top-100 prospect, boasts attractive abilities. He can draw walks at a rate better than league average. He has 15-homer power and 15-steal speed. He has 12 and seven of each of those counting things, respectively, in his short time in The Show. A change of scenery has to be good for the youngster.

Remaining sked: NYY (1), CWS (3), @BOS (3), @CLE (3)

The positive of Tampa Bay’s remaining contests is that they’re scheduled to face RHPs in eight of 10 of them. Franklin, a switch hitter, could be in there on any given day, granted, but in his cumulative major league time, he’s been almost replacement-level as a left-handed hitter, thanks to a .223/.292/.394 slash line, with a .171 ISO, against righties. He hasn’t hit lefties nearly as well in terms of extra-base-hit power.

Franklin’s appeal is limited, it’d seem. In ESPN leagues, he’s available only at 2B; he needs three games at SS to qualify there as well, so I wouldn’t bank on him gaining it. But I’d consider him as a contingent bid in a 15-team mixed league with weekly lineups. He should way intrigue those in leagues with daily changes allowed and, because he must be dirt-cheap, those who play daily contests. Franklin has some point-scoring talent.