Cape Crusade has Maier climbing the MLB draft ladder but opting to leave UBC T-Birds

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North Vancouver pitcher Adam Maier tends to be one of the top picks in next summer’s major league draft.

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However, he no longer does so as a member of the UBC Thunderbirds. The 19-year-old junior right-hander has transferred from the T-Birds to the Oregon Ducks for next season, moving from the ranks of the NAIA to the NCAA.

With a fastball hitting 96 mph and an annihilation speeder, Maier had a great summer at the Cape Cod College All-Star League, the premier circuit of its kind. He struck out 27 and walked nine in 25 2/3 innings there. And the big league buzz followed, witnessed by people like Baseball America names him the No. 39 college prospect for the next draft and Prospects Live chose him as their No. 54 prospect overall.

Those Cape efforts by the 6-foot, 205-pound Maier are what piqued Oregon’s interest as well.

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Maier was the first UBC player to participate in the historic cycle, and the connections of T-Bird coach Chris Pritchett helped him land that spot. Pritchett’s 13-year professional career as first base included a brief season in the majors and he was a scout with the Boston Red Sox before taking over at UBC.

UBC did not play last season due to Canada-U.S. Border restrictions tied to COVID-19, but Pritchett managed to find teams for a handful of his players to join, highlighted by Maier’s six-game run at the Cape. Maier was 0-2 with a 4.55 ERA for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, and was named the Top No. 9 prospect in the league by Baseball America.

“I think he handled it very well,” Maier said of Pritchett and the decision to transfer. “This opportunity to play in an NCAA Division. School was something I had always dreamed of and I felt like I had to take advantage of this opportunity.

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“I loved my time at UBC. I love Chris Pritchett. He has made the world for me. I feel like we have a good relationship. It helped me make some tough decisions. “

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Pritchett says he’s already trying to get another UBC player a place in the Cape for next summer, quickly dispelling any notions that he might resist doing it one more time after what happened with Maier.

“We cannot shy away from those things. We want to develop these guys as best we can, ”said Pritchett, a former member of the Vancouver Canadians Triple-A. “We don’t want the players to transfer. We want to win here as a program. But we have responsibilities to the individual players and to the team, and we will continue to walk that line and find that balance to the best of our ability. “

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The Ducks finished 39-16 overall and 20-10 in Pac-12 last season, marking their best season in seven years. They lost in the NCAA Regionals.

Oregon’s top three starting pitchers from last season have either moved to pro ball or transferred. Teams typically have a three or four game series against an opponent that starts every Friday and Baseball America suggests Maier “He could be the Oregon Friday kid and one of the best starters on the Pac-12. In any case, it is a virtual lock that Maier will be a key piece for the Ducks in 2022. “

Maier says playing at the Cape has given him a confidence boost. A Cape alumnus has been the No. 1 pick in the MLB draft for four years in a row, and In all, 140 Cape students were selected last summer, or 23 percent of the 612 players selected in the 20 rounds.

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“I learned how to get these good hitters out. I learned what can be thrown and where it can be thrown, ”he said. “I learned that I can play with the best players.”

Scout reports on Maier rave about the spin speeds of its slider. He says his father Robert taught him to throw break balls initially, and former UBC ace Brooks McNiven helped him perfect the slider when McNiven was Maier’s coach with the BC Premier League’s North Shore Twins.

“It is improving all the time. I am feeling better. I’m learning how to shape it, ”Maier said of the slider.

He also has a change in his arsenal.

Maier was 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA in five appearances with UBC in a 2020 season shortened by COVID.

UBC right-hander Garrett Hawkins became the 25th player in program history to be selected in the MLB draft when he entered the ninth round last summer against the San Diego Padres. Hawkins pitched last summer in the newly formed MLB Draft League for New Jersey’s Trenton Thunder.

Left-hander Jeff Francis remains the first pick in UBC history after going in the first round, No. 9 overall, to the Colorado Rockies in 2002. Right-hander Curtis Taylor, who went in the fourth round, was No. 119 overall, to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016, is the next-earliest pick in T-Birds history.

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Twitter: @SteveEwen