"The early word on Alex Gordon's transition to the outfield from the man who makes first-person reports to Royals general manager Dayton Moore:

Wow.

Asked to elaborate, Rusty Kuntz offered, "more than wow" after spending the last week at Class AAA Omaha primarily to accelerate Gordon's learning curve in making the move from third base.

"Finally, I can compare him to somebody," said Kuntz, a special assistant to the general manager whose specialties include coaching the organization's outfielders.

"Put Eric Byrnes in Alex Gordon's body, and that's how he plays the outfield. He's flying all over the place, and diving for every ball he think he has a chance to get."

Kuntz said he saw improvement each day.

"Two things you're looking for when a player makes a position change," Kuntz said. "One, he wants to do it. And two, he's got enough effort to become good at it. The latter is a no-brainer. Nobody outworks Alex Gordon.

"And he is just absolutely ecstatic about going out and playing the outfield. Every day I was there, when Alex walked in, two things he did: One, he had a huge smile on his face. And the second was he always asked me, `What do I need to do to get better?'

"He was already there at noon each day wanting to come out for early work. I told him we'd start at 2."

Normal workouts typically start at 4 p.m.

"Every day after a little chalk talk," Kuntz said, "he got a better idea of where he's supposed to be. I'll give you an example:

"The third game, ball down the right-field line, Jordan Parraz picks it, and I look over from the dugout to see if Alex has moved yet. I can't find Alex … because Alex is already backing up third."