…oh. Right.

Tumblr says this better than I ever could have:

I miss you, Matt Angle.

Image courtesy of Orioles Nation.

Yes, ‘creys.’ It’s a Tumblr thing.

Matt Angle was just claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Dodgers, tweets everyone associated with the Orioles. Now I’m going to have to go and cry. Caleb Joseph, you’ve officially been promoted to Steph’s Favorite Orioles Prospect Status.

I love Matt Angle. I love his awkwardly large ears and his speed and his outfield ability and his bunting and his ability to hit to all fields. I really hope he does well with the Dodgers because I love him so much. They had better take care of him or else I’ll be truly devastated.

Please love him for me, Los Angeles. Give him a star in Hollywood for me.

And Dodgers fans reading this, here’s how to draw him, if you’re interested. I’m going to keep drawing him myself because I can’t get enough of those ears (they’re cartoonist GOLD), but I just need to change his uniform now.

This is the last opportunity I’m going to get to post this, so here you go.

Matt Angle is my favorite Orioles prospect. I’m not entirely sure why, but I just took a liking to the kid a year or two ago and he grew on me. That’s why he’s your Oriole cartoon of the day.

For previous drawing tutorials I’ve done, check my posts on Mark Reynolds and Paul Bako.

Let’s get started!

To start, draw out the basic shape of the head and neck. Remember the guidelines on the head to let you know where to place the eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

Add in the shoulders and a little bit of the chest, and you’ve got a good ‘player bust’ all set up. I also sketched in the outline of where I’m going to place Angle’s ears.

In this step, I’ve added both a hat and a hair line. You’ll see why I’ve added the hat in a short while. There’s a legitimate reason.

Start sketching in the details on the face. I’ve drawn in the eyebrows, eyelids and top of the eyes here. Notice how the top of the eyes is lined up with the highest point at which the ears connect to the head – and it’s all on that horizontal guideline.

As the sun came out, I drew in the rest of the face. Remember that Angle’s still a young kid, so make sure to reflect that in his face. Make sure he looks youthful and full of energy, which is why I gave him wide eyes.

Finish the penciling by making sure he’s wearing clothing. Unless you don’t want to and you’ve decided to fanservice Matt Angle, in which case draw in the details on the top of the chest. I’ll then ask you why you decided to fanservice Matt Angle and not Jake Arrieta.

Also, now that I’ve finished the penciling, I’ve gone over some of the details to finalize them – and look at the size of Angle’s ears. In real life, Matt Angle has larger-than-average ears, but when you’re drawing cartoons you want to emphasize things like this, so I’ve made them absolutely huge. I added the hat to actually make his ears look larger – by not drawing as much hair in, it also draws more attention to his ears.

Now start inking. Don’t forget to use a thinner pen for the smaller details like parts of the face. Save the thicker pen for the general outline of the figure.

Finish inking and erase the pencil lines! You can then color your drawing in any way you wish. I usually use Copic and Prismacolor markers, but you can use whatever medium you want!

Don’t forget to comment and tell me which Orioles to draw next! I enjoy this so much!

This is why I should not be allowed on the internet.

Yes, I paid JibJab $5 so I could download that and save it forever. I mean, look at how Chris Tillman’s head is floating in midair sometimes. Wouldn’t you want to save that forever?

I included Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta and Zach Britton, as well. Oh, and Matt Angle. I can never resist adding Matt Angle to EVERYTHING.

Not really. He’s a real prospect of ours. However, I did come across a fictional person under the same name just now…

I’ve been watching a soccer anime called Inazuma Eleven lately. I know it’s aimed at children, but it’s adorable so I really don’t care. Don’t judge me. Anyway, there’s a character on one of the teams who goes by the name Matt Angle:

I’m not seeing the resemblance. This fictional Matt Angle’s ears are way too small.

I really don’t want to do this.

There are few days I hate more than the end of the season. Even though the Orioles pulled out an amazing ninth-inning win, coming from behind to ruin the Red Sox’s chances of making the playoffs, I’m still completely crushed. It’s because I have to say goodbye to everybody now. I guess I should start with that.

• Robert Andino: That walkoff you hit in the ninth should hopefully solidify the #freerobertandino hashtag’s existence on Twitter. You deserve it.
• Brian Matusz: Please, please, PLEASE fix whatever’s wrong with your pitching this off-season. I can’t bear to watch someone I adore as much as you struggling like this. It really hurts.
• Nick Markakis: Keep on balancing strange objects on your chin, buddy. I know you’ll be back next year.
• Adam Jones: You were the absolute MAN this season. I’ll miss you big-time this offseason. If you want any more drawings, just let me know!
• God Matt Wieters: Your cat looks like my cat. Well, one of your two cats looks like one of my four cats.
• MATT ANGLE: COME BACK ALREADY. I MISS YOUR DWEEBISH EARS. I LOVE YOU, FAVORITE ORIOLES PROSPECT.
• Kyle Hudson: You kind of look like a dweeb too, and it’s adorable. I can’t wait to see you next year, either.
• Nolan Reimold: YOU ARE FREE, NOLAN. FELIX PIE IS GONE. With that said, welcome to being a regular-ish player. Except now it’s October so you have to wait until February.
• Jeremy Guthrie: Get better taste in music. Oh, and go Stanford!
• Kevin Gregg: PLEASE LEAVE.
• Alfredo Simon: I’m sad that I can’t put any more Shutdown Sauce on my food until February. This crushes me in a strange way.
• Zach Britton: We both have cats, so you’re cool in my book. (Thank you, Orioles Pet Calendar. Mine arrived in the mail yesterday. Expect a post.)
• Chris Tillman: I’m going to miss the adorable gap in your front teeth. It makes you look so endearing.
• Jake Arrieta: You’re hot.
• Buck Showalter: I’m really going to miss your outbursts this offseason. They made my days so entertaining.  And you know what? In the end, you did the best with the team you had. I’m not sure why you keep getting them to play so darn well in September, though. Can they do this the rest of the season, too?
• Willie Randolph: I’m sorry if last night brought back bad memories of your tenure with the Mets. It kind of did for me.
• Jim Johnson: You’re better than I thought! It’s nice to see you pitching well.
• Troy Patton: OH, YOU’RE ALIVE.
• Chris Davis: Sorry you’re on a team that loses now.
• Tommy Hunter: I could say the same to you, too.
• Mark Reynolds: You walk far more than people notice. Must be the strikeout numbers blinding them. At any rate, I’ll even miss you this offseason.

I’m going to miss everyone, not just the people named here, of course. I just can’t deal with the offseason. Be prepared for a ridiculous number of Arizona Fall League updates from yours truly because I just can’t let go of baseball. Ever.

Oh, and one more thing: good luck in the playoffs, Koji. I miss you to death. がんばれ!

He had an opportunity to strike out for the sixth time with the bases loaded, but he successfully grounded out to end the inning instead.

Oh, yeah, the Orioles won.

Mark Reynolds, who struck out four times in the game, drove in MATT ANGLE in the top of the eleventh with the score knotted 4-4, and the Orioles took a one-run lead. Those are never safe, mind you, but this time Jim Johnson held up and got the save. He’s now 3-for-8 in save opportunities this season.

Pedro Strop got the win. I’m quite fond of Strop, actually. We grabbed him on waivers just five days ago and he’s already making some pretty awesome contributions to this club.

We’re playing the Yankees at 1:05 again tomorrow. I’m not sure why today was a day game, considering last night started awfully late, but at least now everyone can go home and sleep early before the game tomorrow afternoon.

There really won’t be too much substance to this post, but he’s batting leadoff and playing left field and you all really needed to know that because MATT ANGLE IS AWESOME.

Now we just have to win.

On a night when the Orioles actually win a game (6-5 against Cleveland, no thanks to Kevin Gregg, who gave up three runs in the ninth before Michael Gonzalez of all people had to rescue him), Steph’s favorite prospect arrives in Baltimore.

Welcome to the Matt Angle Era, folks. Be prepared for lots of posts from me telling you all how great he is or what he majored in at Ohio State or even how his large ears enable him to fly through the air. (Not really, but expect cartoons.) This is going to be fun, I can promise you that.

In other news, Troy Patton is here, too. Oh, and Simon was only the second O’s starter to complete seven innings since June 12th. And Markakis had three hits on the day. And Kevin Gregg pretty much sucks. But MATT ANGLE is here. It’s all good now.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m pretty happy.

I know you’ve all been waiting for this one from me. So, that being said, here we go!

I have favorite prospects. I have more than the average baseball fan does, and it has led to me creeping out elderly people at Spring Training before by being able to identify players they couldn’t. In the Orioles’ organization, Matt Angle stormed onto the scene and stole that title in 2010. After having his hamate bone removed right after Spring Training, he went to Bowie in mid-May and raked, earning a promotion to Norfolk.

As you can see from my cartoon, Angle has very large ears.

Angle is an outfielder, and he primarily plays center. He’s got a pretty good arm, and he’s fast, as well, making him a threat on the bases. He’s not a power hitter at all, but that’s okay – he’d likely end up as a team’s fourth or fifth outfielder, so he’d be highly useful coming off the bench as a runner or defensive replacement. He hits for average, so he’d also work well as a cog at the top of a team’s lineup.

Angle is currently blocked in the Majors, of course, considering the battle for the fourth outfield spot already has Reimold and Pie in the mix. He’ll be in Norfolk to start 2011, but since he was added to the 40-man roster this past offseason, he clearly has some value to the Orioles. Whether that value lies in him being trade bait or him actually making it to the Majors with Baltimore is still uncertain, as the outfield log jam means that he could be moved to acquire another player to fill a need the Orioles may have later in the season.

That all being said, I think it’s time we got down. And yes, I mean dance Square One TV-style. If you don’t remember Square One TV, feel free to tell me all about it so that I feel very old.