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Rockies Interested In Kevin Correia, For Some Reason

By Hayden Kane

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The Colorado Rockies are looking for depth for their starting rotation, but if recent rumors linking them to free agent Kevin Correia come to be true, they are looking in the wrong places.

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One thing the Rockies could do this off-season is sign the soft-tossing Kevin Correia to compete for a spot in the back of their starting rotation.

Another thing the Rockies could do is decide that they absolutely, positively should not sign Correia.

Let’s go with the latter. Here’s what the Rockies should say to the notion of pursuing free agent starting pitcher Kevin Correia.

Mike Berardino reports the Rockies’ interest in Correia:

I hold a firm belief that the Rockies get too focused on finding a certain type of pitcher instead of just seeking talented pitchers. That said, where they play baseball has to be a consideration and it certainly should be a tiebreaker with fringy guys like Correia.

Kevin Correia is a soft-tossing pitcher who relies on deception and inducing weak contact by keeping hitters off-balance. He does not miss bats, as evidenced by his downright depressing 4.62 K/9 mark last season.

All told, he went 7-17 in 2014 with a 5.44 ERA. The season before that, he went 9-13 with a solid 4.18 ERA but a 4.90 K/9 mark. Those numbers are underwhelming, to be polite about the situation.

Correia’s last two stops have been in hitter-friendly parks, in Petco Park in San Diego and Target Field in Minnesota. Moving a guy with a 4.67 xFIP to Coors Field seems like a dicey proposition, especially considering the fact that he under-performed his FIP while pitching in said pitcher-friendly setting in Minneapolis.

Besides those stats, consider what it looks like to watch Correia. A soft-tossing guy who looks OK when he locates and gets absolutely clobbered when he doesn’t. The Rockies have gone down this road before; it just doesn’t work for them. I could call Kevin Correia a right-handed Jeff Francis, and that might be mean, but it might also be true.

Maybe Correia would eat innings and maybe he would have the chance to be a valuable signing for the Rockies. But I would sure like to see them look elsewhere first in their search for better pitching.

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