That's what the Royals' third baseman keeps hearing all the time: Keep it nice and easy, Alex. Relax, loosen up.

"I guess I was a big stiff board out there, hitting and fielding," Gordon said with a grin.

Gordon has been listening to advice from some pretty accomplished former Royals: George Brett and Kevin Seitzer on hitting and Joe Randa and Frank White on fielding.

"George always tells me to swing nice and easy, so it's kind of like him and Seitzer saying the same thing. So I'm just trying to get there," Gordon said. "The last couple of days I've really noticed a big difference, and I feel a lot more comfortable."

Brett is a spring instructor, and Seitzer is the new hitting coach.

The word was that Gordon was a little too tight at the plate.

"Not a little tight, a lot tight. Extremely tight," Seitzer said.

"So it was getting him to loosen up. His biggest problem is that he cares so much and tries so hard and works so hard. From an offensive standpoint, you have to have loose, tension-free rhythm."

Tension is OK in your legs and core for balance and strength, Seitzer went on, but up above you need to be loose and free as a whip.

"And he was so tight. If you watch him swing, he had tremendous bat speed, tremendous hand speed, but his bat went in and out of the zone too fast, because he was tight instead of loose," Seitzer said.

Despite missing the last three games with a tight right hamstring, Gordon has been working in the batting cages and is expected to be in the lineup on Tuesday night against the Oakland A's. And he feels all the work is paying off.

"It's coming along," Gordon said. "I think the big thing with me is getting started on time, which we've been doing a lot of work on, and I think it's getting better. I felt like I was getting caught back, taking a lot of pitches I shouldn't have, because I wasn't ready to hit."

Fixing that and other things has taken time.

"I can't say enough great things about his attitude and his work ethic," Seitzer said. "It's just been an absolute pleasure to work with him, because he cares so much. But it's also felt like sometimes I had a hammer and a chisel, chipping away at stone, where it's easier when you're working with putty."

During the winter in Kansas City, Gordon happened to meet Brett and Randa one day. The upshot was that Randa, who always flashed golden leather at third, agreed to work with Gordon at the Mac-N-Seitz facility, a Kansas City baseball school run by Seitzer and Mike Macfarlane.

When Gordon came to Spring Training, infield coach Dave Owen took over, aided by some Gold Glove advice from White. How did all that work out?

"Great, my defense is good," Gordon said. "I've been working a lot with hand position -- where I start with my hands -- and when I move, where my hands are going instead of flopping all over my body. Just keeping them close so it's nice and easy. I've been able to tell the difference -- it's not so much work trying to move and get the ball at the same time."

Manager Trey Hillman has been impressed by the improvement.

"Defensively, I think he's moving a lot better," Hillman said. "I think he's going to have another step, step-and-a-half range both ways, right and left."

Entering Monday, Gordon was batting .267 (12-for-45) this spring with two homers and nine RBIs. He really doesn't pay attention to that. It's all about feeling good and peaking on April 6 at Chicago.

"It's not the stats," Gordon said. "To be honest with you, the first couple weeks I had a home run there and there, but even on the home runs, I wasn't feeling comfortable to where I needed to be come season-time."

Gordon was given the third-base job in 2007, with Mark Teahen shifting to the outfield, and he had a promising rookie season (15 homers, 60 RBIs, .247) with a good second half. Then last year, Gordon kind of stayed in place (16 homers, 59 RBIs, .260). So the popular opinion among baseball pundits is that the Royals really need a "breakout" season from Gordon.

All of which nettles Gordon.

"I don't like hearing that," Gordon said. "People can say that, but if you get caught up in that, you lose focus of what the real goal is which is this team -- just having that chemistry and going out and winning games.

"You hear that, and it just goes in one ear and out the other. The focus is winning games and team first."

In fact, it pleases Gordon that last year he led the Royals in a couple of often overlooked categories -- runs scored (72) and walks (66) -- and increased his on-base percentage from .314 to .351.

"I wasn't pleased with my strikeouts -- they were up -- but my base on balls and just getting on base and getting in scoring position for guys [improved]," Gordon said.

"I take more pride in scoring a run for a guy than actually driving one in, because you feel like you're helping them out. I take pride in doing whatever I can to score for other players. Everyone gives me a hard time because I slide head first at home plate. They're trying to get me not to do that, but that's just my aggressiveness to just try to get in there and score for my teammates."

Hey, whatever happened to nice and easy?