Astros rumors: Kevin Correia may be Houston's fallback option for Ryan Vogelsong

Things got awkward with Ryan Vogelsong. No one is talking about what went down, but it really made him uncomfortable.

Someone probably started talking to him about the Dallas Cowboys. It happens, even in the heart of Houston. Either that, or he saw a photo of Chandler Parsons in skinny jeans. Both are acceptable solutions to the Vogelsong mystery.

Despite all that, the Astros could still be in the market for a pitcher to fill out their rotation. To that end, Jon Heyman says the Astros are one of a number of teams who have checked in on free agent hurler Kevin Correia.

astros are among teams looking at free-agent starter kevin correia. houston seeks back-end SP.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) January 27, 2015

Correia, 34, pitched for the Dodgers and Twins last season, throwing 154 total innings with a 5.44 ERA and 79 strikeouts. Correia's strikeout rate would have easily been the lowest of any qualified pitcher, had he qualified. At 11.9 percent, it was lower than Mark Buerhle, Scott Feldman and Kyle Kendrick.

Hey! A current Astro and another Astros "target," along with the slowest successful lefty in the league. In the past three seasons, the only pitcher with a lower strikeout rate than Correia is Scott Diamond of the Twins.

To put Correia's microscopic strikeout rate into perspective, his 2014 rate of 11 percent was about 20 percent less than onetime rotation mate Clayton Kershaw. The difference between the two of them was greater than all but 39 pitchers' individual K rates last season.  Does that make sense? I don't think it does. Too bad, Kevin Correia just failed to strike out someone else.

On the plus side? Correia has thrown at least 140 innings in every season since 2009. So there's that.

What do you think? Underwhelmed by the latest rumor? Super-duper underwhelmed? Ready to welcome this year's Jerome Williams to the mix?