WBSC World Rankings

Men's Baseball Rankings as of 25 August 2016[1]
Rank Team Points Confederation
1  Japan 5515 BFA
2  United States 5453 COPABE
3  South Korea 4812 BFA
4  Chinese Taipei 4554 BFA
5  Cuba 3813 COPABE
6  Canada 2659 COPABE
7  Venezuela 2642 COPABE
8  Mexico 2637 COPABE
9  Italy 2173 CEB
10  Netherlands 2146 CEB
11  Puerto Rico 1759 COPABE
12  Dominican Republic 1559 COPABE

The WBSC World Rankings is a ranking system for national teams in baseball and softball. The teams of the member nations of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), baseball's world governing body, are ranked based on their tournament results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of WBSC-recognized international tournaments. Under the existing system, rankings are based on a team's performance over the last four years, with major international tournaments awarded a higher weighting compared to minor international and continental tournaments.

History

In January 2009, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) first published a listing in rank order of its member associations to provide a basis for comparison of the relative strengths of these teams. Though primarily focused on the respective men's senior teams of member nations, the current ranks also include points awarded based on results at the IBAF 'AAA' (Under 18) Junior and 'AA' (Under 16) Youth Championships held during the tracking period. Beginning in 2015, the rankings also determine which twelve teams participate in the WBSC Premier12 tournament.

Men's baseball rankings

For the current men's rankings, see chart at top of page and the WBSC website.[2]

See footnote.[1]

Women's baseball rankings

For the current women's rankings, see chart and the WBSC website.[2]

Women's Baseball Rankings as of 22 September 2016[3]
Rank Team Points Confederation
1  Japan 2000 BFA
2  Canada 1333 COPABE
3  United States 1180 COPABE
4  Australia 1057 BCO
5  Venezuela 933 COPABE
6  Chinese Taipei 907 BFA
7  South Korea 430 BFA
8  Netherlands 403 CEB
9  Cuba 353 COPABE
10  Hong Kong 343 BFA
11  India 160 BFA
12  Pakistan 100 BFA

The initial women's baseball rankings were based upon results from past Women's Baseball World Cups. While the calculations of the women's rankings are similar to that of the men's, one main difference is that they are inclusive of the three most recent IBAF Women's Baseball World Cups whereas the men's rankings only include the last two. Points are weighted in favor of the more recent results.[4]

Softball rankings

In the wake of the International Olympic Committee's decision to cut baseball from the 2012 Olympics program, the IBAF pushed the growth of women's baseball as to include a women's component in its bid for a reinstatement of the sport in future Olympics. The effort to unify the sports resulted in the merger of the IBAF with the International Softball Federation in 2013 to create the WBSC.[5] As a result, the WBSC is also responsible for ranking international men's and women's softball teams.

Top 10 Women's Softball Rankings as of 22 March 2016[6]
RankTeamPoints
1  Japan 1560
2  United States 1500
3  Australia 1300
4  Canada 1280
5  Chinese Taipei 1080
6  China 920
7  Netherlands 880
8  New Zealand 820
9  Italy 760
10  Czech Republic 620
Top 10 Men's Softball Rankings as of 22 March 2016[6]
RankTeamPoints
1  New Zealand 1340
2  Canada 1220
3  Australia 1140
4  Venezuela 1080
5  Japan 980
6  Argentina 940
7  Czech Republic 720
7  United States 720
9  Mexico 540
10  Great Britain 460

Calculation method

Under the current system used, points are awarded to member nations based purely on their final position in recognised international tournaments.[7] This is opposed to other international sports ranking systems such as the ICC Test Championship for cricket, that is based on both individual matches and the results of series, or the FIFA World Rankings for football, that is based solely on individual matches.

Points are awarded according to the following table:

Final position Points awarded
1st 50
2nd 40
3rd 30
4th 15
5th – 2nd-last* Spread evenly between 15 & 1
Last* 1

^* - If more than 32 teams compete, points are only awarded to the first 32 teams. (i.e. the spread is from 5th - 31st, Last gets 1 point.)

The points awarded after 4th place are spread evenly in an attempt to ensure balance between tournaments with different-sized fields: finishing 6th out of 20 teams is considered to be a higher accomplishment than finishing 6th out of 8 teams. Given that points are not fixed beyond 4th place, a calculation is used to determine how many points are awarded to each position. The calculation gives the difference between any two consecutive positions from 4th through to last (e.g. 4th and 5th, 7th and 8th, 21st and 22nd, etc.). The calculation is:

This is illustrated in the following table:

Number of teams Points difference 4th 5th 2nd-Last Last
6 7 15 8 1
8 3 1/2 11 1/2 4 1/2
12 1 3/4 13 1/4 2 3/4
16 1 1/6 13 5/6 2 1/6
32 1/2 14 1/2 1 1/2

A multiplier is used in awarding points, based on the prestige of the tournament and the quality of the teams involved. The table below reflects the changes in the international baseball schedule recently approved by the WBSC. Below are the multipliers that will be used beginning in 2012.

World Baseball Classic 6x (Winner receives 50 points, multiplied by 6 for a total of 300 points)

Premier 12 6x

WBC Qualifiers * (Pool winner receives 50 points, 2nd – 40 pts, 3rd – 30 pts, 4th – 15 pts)

21U and 18U 2x

15U and 12U 1x

Continental Championships, Continental Qualifiers, and all other WBSC-sponsored events will receive a multiplier based on the number of top-10 teams from the previous year-end rankings that are entered in the tournament. (See below)

1.00× - Continental Championships/Qualifying Tournaments, where 3 or more competing teams are in the previous year-end top 10

0.75× - Continental Championships/Qualifying Tournaments, where 2 competing teams are in the previous year-end top 10

0.50× - Continental Championships/Qualifying Tournaments, where 1 competing team is in the previous year-end top 10

0.25× - Continental Championships/Qualifying Tournaments, where no competing teams are in the previous year-end top 10

After each tournament where ranking points are awarded, the WBSC re-releases the ranking list with the points from the most recent tournament added, and points from tournaments more than four years old removed.

See also

Notes and references

  1. 1 2 "WBSC reveals updated 2016 Baseball World Rankings: Nos. 1-71 | WBSC". www.wbsc.org. August 25, 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 On the WBSC website, click on "Menu" and then click on "Rankings." Retrieved 2016-10-22.
  3. ↑ "WBSC reveals new Women's Baseball World Rankings 2016 | WBSC". WBSC. September 22, 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "IBAF Releases First-Ever Women's World Rankings". International Baseball Federation. 13 August 2009. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  5. ↑ "ABOUT THE WORLD BASEBALL SOFTBALL CONFEDERATION". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 "WBSC launches first-ever Softball World Rankings: Japan Women's No. 1, New Zealand Men's No. 1". Mister Baseball. March 22, 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  7. ↑ "IBAF World Ranking Notes". International Baseball Federation. 13 January 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 June 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
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