Stewart, Aikens part of Royals' Draft action

KANSAS CITY -- Two members of the Kansas City organization who have had a hand in developing the next generation of Royals will be at it again next month.

Major League Baseball announced the club representatives for the 2012 First-Year Player Draft on Tuesday, and Art Stewart and Willie Aikens will be on hand in Secaucus, N.J., representing the Royals. Club representatives will sit at the team's Draft table and will phone in each pick.

The annual First-Year Player Draft will take place from June 4-6, beginning with the first round and Comp Round A on Monday, June 4, at 6 p.m. CT. The first night of the event will be broadcast live on MLB Network and streamed live on MLB.com. Rounds 2-40 will also be streamed live on MLB.com on June 5-6.

MLB.com's coverage, sponsored by CenturyLink, will include Draft Central, the Top 100 Draft Prospects list, Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of every Draft-eligible player, and Draft Caster. You can also keep up to date by following @MLBDraft on Twitter. And get into the Draft conversation by tagging your tweets with #mlbdraft.

Stewart is in his 43rd season with the Royals and his 60th in professional baseball. He currently serves as the senior advisor to the general manager, a position he's held since 1997. Before that, he served as the Royals' director of scouting, starting in 1984. Stewart is a member of the Royals Hall of Fame, as well as the Professional Scouts Hall of Fame.

Aikens is a former Royals first baseman and currently works for the organization as a Minor Leagues coach. Aikens homered twice in two games of the 1980 World Series as a member of the American League pennant-winning Royals.

Aikens had a difficult life following his glory days with the Royals, twice arrested on drug charges and spending 14 years in federal prison before his release in 2008. But he has since turned his life around and was hired as a coach last year.