Most of Craig Albernaz’s focus Saturday will settle on the players in his clubhouse, the duties that come with being a major league manager. However, he isn’t turning a blind eye to the draft, which begins in the afternoon and runs through the first four rounds.

He’s aware of it, and he’s highly interested.

Albernaz has heard the pre-draft chatter and checked on some of the top players on the board. To have lots on his plate isn’t used as an excuse to tune out.

“It’s an exciting time of the year,” he said. “It is a little weird that it’s starting tomorrow, but yeah, it’s gonna be a life-changing moment for a lot of players. And it’s the beauty of this game. It just keeps on going.

“I challenge myself and the rest of our coaching staff, we always want to leave the game in better hands than what we had it, and that’s why we take great pride in development. And it’s not only on the field, but it’s in the clubhouse and it’s off the field, as well.”

The Orioles hold the seventh selection in the first round and also make picks at 46, 82 and 110.

“The draft, especially the major league draft, is such a crapshoot,” Albernaz said. “You don’t know who’s gonna pan out, so it’s always fun and exciting.”

Young players face different challenges in getting acclimated to professional baseball. High school prospects are making a huge jump in levels. College prospects must adjust to playing six days a week rather than weekends and using the rest of the time to practice.

The travel and facilities aren’t the same. Very little will feel familiar.

“You get to play with players from different countries, it’s a bunch of different coaching, you’re way out of your comfort zone as far as places that you’re used to being in every single day. It’s a lot,” Albernaz said.

“I think the biggest thing is just the workload component of it and playing every day and practicing every day before the game. It’s getting your body acclimated to that.”

*The Orioles are 11-3 in games started by right-hander Brandon Young and 32-48 in the rest. The .786 winning percentage is the third highest in the majors in a minimum 10 starts behind the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler (12-2, .857) and the Nationals’ Foster Griffin (15-4, .789).

Young is on the mound tonight with a 3.38 ERA that’s the lowest in the rotation and a 2.83 ERA over his last eight appearances.

“I would not have guessed that, but also, we’ve had some injuries,” Albernaz said. “But also, diving in when I got the job, into B.Y., and also seeing him up close in spring training, you knew he had all the ingredients to be a really good starting pitcher in this league. And what B.Y. has done has been awesome.

“Our record is not the best. I’m not sure what our record would be without B.Y. and how he stepped up for us. And it’s not only his performance, it’s also the cascading effect of his performance, where he’s able to pitch deep in the game and be efficient, and it doesn’t tax the bullpen, so it sets us up for the next few games, too. So it’s all the little things that come along with that.”

*A hot bat didn’t launch Tyler O’Neill into tonight’s lineup against Kansas City right-hander Luinder Avila.

Left-hander Noah Cameron starts on Saturday, which should return O’Neill to right field or as the designated hitter.

O’Neill is 3-for-5 with three home runs in his past two games, and he didn’t start Wednesday. He’s hit four homers this month in 11 at-bats, and his .654 OPS this season has reached its highest point since May 2.

“I think the work in the cage has been great,” Albernaz said. “T.O.’s been working diligently and to me he’s squaring up the balls that he should be. I think when he was not getting the results he wants, the pitches that he hit for homers, those are the ones he’s like fouling off or just missing, and he’s done a great job with his timing and squaring up those pitches. And it sounds pretty simple, but sometimes simple is better, and right now T.O., the past three games, just getting the barrel to the ball.”

O’Neill is one of three Canadian-born players to have a multi-homer game this season, along with Liam Hicks (May 23) and Josh Naylor (April 13).

No other Canadian-born player has done that for the Orioles, according to STATS, but Jeff Heath produced three for the 1947 Browns.