SARASOTA, Fla. -- If and when the strike ends, Orioles manager Phil Regan figures the position players will be easy to prepare. Get them in camp, hit them some grounders and pop-ups, throw them some batting practice for a week and they'll be ready to go.
But the pitching staff . . . that could be a messy situation, particularly if the strike continues into mid-March.
During a normal spring training, pitchers could gradually build arm strength at roughly the same pace, each following a regimented schedule. Throw 20 minutes on Thursday, 25 minutes on Saturday, et cetera.
Suppose, however, that the strike lingers. Players make it to camp March 20, with Opening Day a couple of weeks away. Pitching coach Mike Flanagan would like to come up with some " sort of plan for this possibility, for every possibility.
But, he says, "You can't do it. You want to be prepared for tomorrow, but you can't simply because you're not going to be able to plan anything until they get here and you find out who's been throwing and who hasn't been throwing.
"Spring training is 45 orchestrated days and you know exactly what you're supposed to do each of those days. You just don't have that luxury.
"What becomes more important, the bunt plays or the pickoff plays? It's not like you can say, OK, we're going to put in 10-hour days to get ready. You can only throw so much before it becomes counterproductive. You can only run so much before you're too sore for the next day."
Depending on when the strike ends, Regan said he might carry one or two extra pitchers on his 25-man roster as his staff pitches its way into condition.
Jordan on Goodwin, Ochoa
Michael Jordan briefly reminisced yesterday about his time spent with Orioles minor-leaguers Curtis Goodwin and Alex Ochoa, his teammates in the Arizona Fall League with the Scottsdale Scorpions. "They're great guys," Jordan said. "I enjoyed those guys, man. They're very good talents."
He paused.
"They can't play basketball, though."
Padres quiet on Frank
Update on the Orioles-Padres swap meet: No change in the Padres' pursuit of Orioles assistant general manager Frank Robinson, who will talk seriously with San Diego chief executive Larry Lucchino in the next few weeks.
"Right now," Lucchino said, "all I can offer you is a no-comment on that situation."
Meanwhile, the Orioles might hire Ollie Goulston, a player development assistant the past two seasons in San Diego. He is to interview with scouting director Gary Nichols sometime next week. Goulston, 25, could replace Fred Uhlman Jr., who left his job as assistant scouting director with the Orioles to work for Padres general manager Randy Smith.
Camp growing
Twenty-nine more minor-leaguers are scheduled to report to camp today, including Eastern Shore native Jason Hackett, the Orioles fourth-round pick in the 1993 draft. He was born and raised in Worton, near Chestertown in Kent County.