Ken Griffey Jr. wasn't around the open clubhouse are all that much in today's pre-game hours. Instead, he was in a back room looking at video of his recent swings along with manager Don Wakamatsu and others.

The video apparently showed that Griffey wasn't using his legs as much as he was last season while swinging a bat.

"I don't think he's using his legs as much as I've seen him in the past,'' Wakamatsu said. "We looked at some video today. As you mentioned, I think there are a lot of guys we'd like to get going. You don't have the magic formula of how many at-bats that's going to take. One thin you always try to demand is qulity at-bats as far as pitch selection and everything else.''

Can the lack of legwork be making his bat slower?

"The videos we looked at, that upper body swing is a lot more sweeping because he didn't have the explosion out of his legs,'' Wakamatsu said. "That's what we're looking at and are going to continue to monitor the next couple of days.''

Now, we heard over the winter that Griffey had worked on making his legs stronger after that knee surgery. In theory, without all the knee pain this year, you would almost expect him to be using the legs more. I asked Wakamatsu why a player might get away from that -- whether it's just a matter of not focusing on it, or what.

"I wish I had that answer,'' he said. "That's why we're looking at video and he's looking at video. We're trying to get him swinging the bat a little bit better. When it's not functioning right, yeah, you start to see a little bit slower bat, or you don't have any explosion, or you start to see more ground balls like you've seen.

"Just more trends. He's a guy that's a low ball hitter who tends to lift the ball in the air and not swing into ground balls. And when he's not using his legs...again, he's had some injuries. He had the surgery over the winter. He's deal with them a little bit, but I do think his legs are stronger. It's just a matter of, maybe him focusing on it a little bit more.''

Wakamatsu said he'd like to get Mike Sweeney some more at-bats. He doesn't think Sweeney has had enough time to get going after a strong second half last year and big spring training. He plans to give him a DH start on Wednesday afternoon against right hander Gil Meche, but that's all for this series,

At present, the priority is trying to get Griffey going these next two days.

"You've got to let him get some at-bats to see if he's going to react to it,'' Wakamatsu said.

He later added: "I think he's chasing more pitches than he normally has up in the zone. And again, I think when you get off to a rough start, it doesn't matter whether you're a rookie or a veteran. You want to produce. That's where we're starting to look a little bit deeper into some of the mechanics.''