Unsigned MLB Draft Picks in the First Twenty Rounds

First, my sincere condolences to John, Jeri, and the Jackson family at this time of loss.

The 2015 MLB draft signing deadline passed at 5 PM today. Only six out of the 315 picks in the first ten rounds failed to sign - 98.1% of all top ten round draft picks signed. That is the same percentage that signed in the first ten rounds of the 2014 MLB draft, and up slightly from 2013's 97.5%. This shows that the changes made to the draft in the last CBA have not reduced the number of guys signing in the top ten rounds, although it doesn't hurt to have rounds 7-10 dominated by college seniors.

The highest undrafted player this year is Louisville RHP Kyle Funkhouser. A late season funk, pardon the pun, saw his draft stock fall from a projected top ten pick to the 35th overall pick. The Dodgers spent big and early on their draft picks, and were left unable to offer much more than slot for Funkhouser. The $2.1 million or so they could offer him wasn't enough to get him to forgo his senior season, where he hopes to solidify his value and jump back up the draft boards. However, with next year's stacked draft class, that may be a gamble he won't come out ahead on.

In total, there were four picks that were protected and did not sign. Along with Funkhouser was Florida RHP commit and Blue Jay draftee Brady Singer in the second round, Georgia Tech RHP commit and Orioles draftee Jonathan Hughes in the second round, and Kyle Cody, the Kentucky RHP who chose to go back for his senior season instead of signing with the Twins in Competitive Balance Round B. Each of those picks will be compensated in next year's draft, one spot lower than the pick's number this year.

Only two other picks didn't sign in the first ten rounds - San Jacinto CC commit and Tigers seventh round pick Nicholas Shumpert, and Miami commit Kep Brown, taken by the Cardinals in the tenth round. Both were top 100 guys for most of the spring, and weren't offered enough to break their commitments to college. With the junior college commit, Shumpert will look to be drafted again next year, while Brown is an early first round favorite for the 2018 draft.

In rounds 11-20, 37 players didn't sign - that's 12.3%, seven picks every two rounds, or one out of every 8 draftees. The majority of them were high schoolers - 73.0% of unsigned draft picks in rounds 11-20 were high school players. Overall, 71.4% of unsigned draft picks in the top twenty rounds were high school players. Right-handed pitchers were by far the hardest group to sign, as 50.0% of all unsigned top twenty round draft picks were righties. Far, far behind in second place were shortstops (19.0%), followed by catchers and left-handed pitchers in third place (9.5%). No other group had more than 7.1% of the total top twenty round unsigned picks.

Here's a list of all 41 unsigned picks from the first twenty rounds, including my pre-draft ranking of them:

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Feel free to discuss below:

• Was it a smart move for Funkhouser and Cody not to sign, given how strong next year's class will be?
• Who in rounds 11-20 do you think has the best chance at being a top ten pick in the 2018 draft?