Zack Greinke and the Dodgers have agreed to a 6-year, $147 million mega-deal, the largest in MLB history for a righty and one that makes him the highest-paid pitcher on an average annual value basis.

Greinke slots in behind Clayton Kershaw in the rotation and gives the Dodgers a formidable 1-2 punch while lengthening the staff. Speaking of Kershaw, he must be thrilled with this deal, as his contract extension is going to be so unbelievably massive now, as in likely north of $200 million.

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The Dodgers followed up the Greinke signing by inking Korean lefty Hyun Jin Ryu to a 6-year, $36 million deal. Chad has more details here.

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Dodgers minor-league outfielder Alfredo Silverio was selected sixth in the 2012 Rule 5 Draft by the Marlins.

The Dodgers will receive $50,000 in compensation and Silverio must remain on the Marlins 25-man roster for the entirety of the 2013 campaign. If the Marlins don’t keep him, they must first offer him back to the Dodgers for $25,000.

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Though the Dodgers passed on selecting anyone during the major-league phase of the Rule 5 Draft, they picked up two guys in the minor-league portion. Elevys Gonzalez, an infielder from the Pirates organization, and Hector Nelo, a righty from the Nationals, will each cost the Blue Crew $12,000.

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Greg Zakwin is the founder of the site Plaschke Thy Sweater Is Argyle. Follow him on Twitter @ArgyledPlaschke.

The big news out of Japan today is that the Nippon Ham Fighters have decided to select Shohei Otani with their first-round pick in tomorrow’s NPB Draft, according to Sanspo.

Ever since I tweeted out that information, I’ve been getting a bunch of questions, so I thought I should make a post dedicated to answering them as best I could.

Does the NPB Draft work like the MLB Draft?

No.

The first round of the NPB Draft is a lottery system, where every team submits who they want to take. If you’re the only team that selects a player, then you are awarded his rights. However, if multiple teams select the same player, then there’s a random draw for that player’s services. The system repeats until every team has a player.

So it would be like if all 30 MLB teams decided they wanted Bryce Harper in the first round, then the way it’s determined who gets him is based on the luck of the draw. Literally.

After the first round, it’s a standard snake-format draft.

Why is it surprising that the Nippon Ham Fighters want to draft him?

It’s surprising because he already announced his intention to go overseas. An unsigned pick wouldn’t be a gigantic deal in America due to our compensation system (Mark Appel/Pirates), but in Japan it is because if you don’t sign your pick then the pick is gone forever.

To make matters worse, Nippon Ham already lost their first-round pick from last year, Tomoyuki Sugano, as he refused to sign due to his desire to play under his uncle with the Yomiuri Giants.

Needless to say, Nippon Ham fans aren’t very happy about the risk associated with this, at least judging by a small sample of reactions I found on Twitter.

So why does this complicate things for the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Rangers, the three main teams he’s rumored to be considering?

Unless the MLB and the teams involved really want a mess on their hands, they will not be able to interfere with the exclusive rights granted to the NPB team that drafts Otani until the period of negotiation ends on March 31st. As such, he’ll miss spring ball for 2013 if he’s taken.

So hypothetically speaking, that drags the saga out but it’s just an inconvenience … right? Well, in my opinion, the real risk with him being drafted is that he could be tempted to stay in Japan given time to talk it through with the team that selects him. He is, after all, only a teenager, and there are a lot of reasons besides baseball to want to stay in Japan.

Social and cultural reasons aside, Sponichi makes the case that he would be guaranteed more money by staying in Japan. While the signing bonus from an NPB team would presumably fall short of any MLB offer by a million dollars or so, he could still get a 100 million yen ($1 million) bonus in Japan and he’ll immediately be under NPB contract. On the other hand, in the MLB system, after the bonus money, he would be subjected to the standard paltry pay of a minor-leaguer. Of course, this would be rendered moot by any MLB team willing to accept the penalties in place for exceeding the cap, but I’m not so sure teams would be willing to do so.

Overall, it’s just concerning because it’s easy to say you’re going to do something, but when the easy route is laid out in front of somebody (much less a teenager), with millions of dollars at stake, and a ton of pressure, nobody could blame him for simply taking what might be a record deal given to him by whoever drafts him.

Also of note is that he’ll be banned from the NPB for three years under the “Tazawa Rule” (named after Junichi Tazawa of the Red Sox) if he chooses to go overseas, but I doubt that comes into play.

Who is going to sign him?

I sort of addressed this already, but it’s basically down to the Dodgers, Rangers, and Red Sox, according to him. Others are interested but he’s focusing on those three.

The Japanese media believe the Dodgers are in front because they’ve been in contact with him the longest. While that does mean something, a ton can change, obviously.

How does the NPB feel about Shohei Otani jumping to the MLB?

As I explained in a previous post, this is a trailblazing path for Otani, and the NPB is concerned about the precedent he might set.

Articles from Nikkan Sports and Spoinichi show a range of reactions from teams that basically can be summarized to say that the NPB needs to look at revising the rules.

Most notably to me, via Daily Sports, the President of the Hanshin Tigers complains that while NPB scouts are restricted in terms of contact and meetings with players, international scouts are not, thus putting NPB teams at a disadvantage for their own players.

I want Cliffs Notes!

If he doesn’t get drafted, negotiations can start tomorrow.

If selected in the NPB Draft, he could be tempted to stay in Japan due to monetary, cultural, and family issues, and even if he does follow through on his overseas ambitions, negotiations with him wouldn’t be able to start until April 1st. As such, it doesn’t appear that this saga will be over for at least another 6-7 months or so.

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Since the Dodgers are in the running for his services and he’d definitely be a top prospect in the system if signed, I’ll keep everybody updated on his situation as best I can.

In case you’ve been living under a rock or something, Dodgers fans are rightfully concerned that Matt Kemp might be in a bit of hot water after yesterday’s game, where he bumped/ran into/pushed back an umpire or two during a heated argument with basically the entire crew.

“Let’s go, Dre!”

Those apparently were the words that got center fielder Matt Kemp ejected during the second inning of the Dodgers’ 10-6 loss to the Pirates on Thursday. After Kemp was tossed, manager Don Mattingly came out to argue before getting the boot, too.

“Matt got thrown out today for cheering for Andre [Ethier],” Mattingly said. “He was barking about the pitch to Dre, the second strike, but then Angel said, ‘That’s enough. I don’t want to hear another word.’ So the next thing that came out of [Matt's mouth] — I heard it, clear as a bell — he said — because Matt knows where to stop — and Matt said, ‘Let’s go, Dre!’ And [Campos] looked over, and he threw him out of the game. It’s unacceptable.”

Mattingly and Kemp stormed out of the dugout following the center fielder’s ejection. Mattingly initially restrained Kemp before Shane Victorino and bench coach Trey Hillman stepped in. That let Mattingly argue with the umpires for several minutes before he was kicked out, as well.

“It’s unbelievable, man. I don’t get it,” Kemp said. “I’m sitting here, watching the game. There’s some big moments, you know, bases loaded. You think about things like that. You might be up to bat. You might get that big hit.

“But that wasn’t able to happen today, because I got kicked out of the game for something that wasn’t worth getting kicked out of the game for.”

As I said yesterday, unless they are completely lying, it was quite the ump show with the ringleader being Angel Campos. However, no matter how ridiculous the reason for ejection, physically contacting an umpire is rightfully a no-no, and it’s hard to deny it happens.

You could argue that there’s two separate umpires that he initiates physical contact with. Granted, it’s not like he was trying to get physical with either umpire involved in the incidents, as it was more like he was just trying to push through everybody and anybody to get into the face of Campos. Regardless though, Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher got a game for “aggressively arguing” on Tuesday, so I think Kemp is staring down at least a game suspension and as much as three, depending on how the MLB views Kemp’s contact.

Given his value to the team and the fact that the division race is a dead heat, it’s not a stretch to say that it could cost the Dodgers in the end if he gets suspended at all.

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On a lighter note, there’s this:

Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw are the two Dodgers who will represent the team at the 2012 All-Star Game.

Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw are headed back to the All-Star game.

Kemp and Kershaw were selected to their second National League All-Star teams Sunday. Both players made their All-Star debuts last year.

Both played well enough, but both partially got in due to name recognition…

Excluded from the team were Andre Ethier, who is tied for third in the NL with 55 runs batted in, and Chris Capuano, who is 9-3 with a 2.69 ERA.

…which is exactly why it’s hard to complain about Andre Ethier and Chris Capuano getting left out. Especially when Zack Greinke and James McDonald didn’t even make it.

Beyond The Box Score: Glenn DuPaul takes a look at the most valuable players of April and May. A.J. Ellis tops the hitter’s list, while former Dodger James McDonald tops the pitcher’s list.

The New Yorker: Scientifically, what makes players choke?

So far, so obvious: the extra money led people to get more excited about the potential rewards, which led them to work harder. This is why businesses give people bonuses.

However, when the subjects actually began playing the video game, the striatum did something very peculiar. All of a sudden, the activity of the brain area became inversely related to the magnitude of the reward; bigger incentives led to less excitement. Furthermore, activity in the insula was closely correlated with success, with decreased activity leading to decreased performance.

What explains this result? The researchers argue that the subjects were victims of loss aversion, the well-documented psychological phenomenon that losses make us feel bad more than gains make us feel good.

There is something poignant about this deconstruction of choking. It suggests that the reason some performers fall apart on the back nine or at the free-throw line is because they care too much. They really want to win, and so they get unravelled by the pressure of the moment. The simple pleasures of the game have vanished; the fear of losing is what remains.

Basically? Because they care about winning.