Cardinals interview Francona  —  The Cardinals interviewed former Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona today in their process to replace Tony La Russa.  —  The interview took place in Cincinnati, where Cards chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. resides and operates his private equity firm, Reynolds DeWitt & Co.

Marlins ready to make major noise  —  The meetings with Buehrle and Reyes will take place in South Florida, one source said.  The meeting with Cespedes, which will include Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, will take place in the Dominican Republic.  —  The Marlins' No. 1 priority is upgrading their rotation.

Duquette re-enters Majors with Orioles position  —  Former Red Sox GM introduced as VP of baseball operations  —  BALTIMORE — After more than nine years out of Major League Baseball, Dan Duquette was officially introduced Tuesday morning as the Orioles' executive vice president of baseball operations …

Money Wins: Is There Enough Parity In Baseball?  —  Yesterday afternoon, Jayson Stark considered the question, “Is the MLB's competitive balance a joke?”  His answer was a rather blunt no: … Stark's method of proving it — plucking facts from the recent playoff series and comparing …

Notebook: Oswalt looking good; Pap, too  —  The Nationals plan a major push for free-agent right-hander Roy Oswalt, viewing him as the perfect veteran complement to Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, John Lannan and Chien-Ming Wang, major-league sources said.

Bailey could be the answer for Toronto  —  Buster Olney writes that the Toronto Blue Jays are looking at myriad ways to improve the back of their bullpen after a season with many blown saves.  Oakland closer Andrew Bailey could make a lot of sense for Toronto.  Plus, hot stove notes.

Rockies eye starting pitching through trade, free agency  —  Adding a starting pitcher remains a top priority for the Rockies, leading them to discuss trades internally and express interest in free agents Kevin Millwood, Rich Harden and Bruce Chen.  —  The rival Giants set the bar …

Ballplayers fear induction into ‘Get Smart Club’  —  Significant statistics ending in ‘nine’ can haunt players, careers  —  A highly-anticipated movie entitled “Nine” — with the subtitle, “Be Italian” — opened during the holiday season in 2009.  —  Had that flick been about baseball, the subtitle would have been, “Be Frustrated.”

Royals interested in Zambrano  —  While Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, and company continue the interview process for a new field manager this week on a parallel track of importance is what they can do to dramatically improve a Cubs team that finished the 2011 season 71-91 and 25 games …

Paulsen, Arenado lead Rafters to win  —  Rockies prospects combine to plate five runs in Salt River rout  —  Ben Paulsen has struggled to find his groove this fall.  He found some new moves Monday.  —  The Rockies prospect was 2-for-4 with three RBIs as Salt River defeated Scottsdale, 9-4.

Berkman calls Astros potential move to the American League ‘a travesty’  —  Lance Berkman's slip of the tongue wasn't your average inadvertent trip back through time like referring to the AL wild card winners as the “Devil Rays” or that tower next to the Galleria as whichever name was the old one.