New World Baseball Rankings

For those of you who keep up with baseballs pecking order outside the USA, IBAF issued a press release below with the new rankings an USA moved to number 2.   It was pretty cool seeing Germany in the top twenty as well.

 

USA MOVES TO NO. 2 IN IBAF WORLD RANKINGS

IBAF AA/16U Worlds, Baseball World Cup titles push U.S. up two spots from No. 4

 

( LAUSANNE, Switzerland) - The United States of America moved from No. 4 to No. 2 in the International Baseball Federation's (IBAF) latest installment of the Men's World Rankings which were released Monday.

 

Behind first place finishes at the IBAF "AA"/16U World Youth Championships and the IBAF Baseball World Cup, the U.S. jumped ahead of Korea and Japan and put it within striking distance of Cuba, which has held the No. 1 position since the rankings debuted earlier this year.

 

With these rankings, the IBAF also introduced several tournaments from the last four years that were not originally taken into consideration for the World Rankings. These events include continental pre-qualifying tournaments and invitational events like the "Good Luck Beijing" Baseball Tournament in 2007.  The inclusion of the new events has introduced 22 national baseball teams to the IBAF World Rankings, and all of the new tournaments meet the criteria of events which the IBAF considers for rankings points.

 

Overall, tournaments and championships that have been added, replaced or removed for the 19 October IBAF World Rankings include:

 

Added: 2007 "Good Luck Beijing" Baseball Tournament, 2007 and 2009 Asian Baseball Cups (for 2007 and 2009 Asian Championships, respectively), 2006 and 2008 European Continental Qualifiers (for 2007 and 2010 European Championships)
Replaced: 2005 IBAF Baseball World Cup with the 2009 IBAF Baseball World Cup, 2005 IBAF "AA"/16U World Youth Championships with the 2009 IBAF "AA"/16U World Youth Championships
Removed: None

Next to be replaced: 2005 Southeast Asia Games (2009 Southeast Asia Games set for later this year, replacement will be reflected in year-end rankings)

 

Other notable changes in the rankings include Italy moving from No. 15 to No. 12 and Germany moving into the top-20, going from No. 23 to No. 20.  Belgium witnessed the largest jump in the rankings, going from unranked to No. 34 while both Cameroon and Samoa saw the biggest decline, falling from a tie at No. 51 to again even at No. 72.

 

The complete IBAF Men's World Rankings are listed below:

 

The first number is Current Rank, 2nd is Previous Rank, Member Federation, Total Rankings Points

1, 1, Cuba, 1159.68

2, 4, United States, 1051.32

3, 3, Japan, 912.07

4, 2, Korea, 850.76

5, 5, Chinese Taipei, 561.63

6, 6, Netherlands, 405.33

7, 8, Canada, 360.19

8, 7, Mexico, 353.75

9, 9, Venezuela, 298.86

10, 10, Puerto Rico, 231.39

11, 11, Australia, 211.24

12, 15, Italy, 166.00

13, 13, Dominican Republic, 135.68

14, 14, Nicaragua, 117.49

15, 16, China, 102.00

16, 12, Panama, 92.32

17, 18, Spain, 67.38

18, 17, Thailand, 63.38

19, 19, Philippines, 62.33

20, 23, Germany, 48.38

21, 25, Great Britain, 45.76

22, 24, Czech Republic, 44.91

23, 21, South Africa, 40.05

24, 29, Netherlands Antilles, 34.93

25, 40, Croatia, 34.19

26, 27, Indonesia, 28.50

27, 32, Russia, 23.45

28, 36, France, 21.63

29, 26, Sweden, 19.07

30, 37, Hong Kong, 17.92

31, 49, Pakistan, 14.75

32, 28, Palau, 12.50

33, 22, Colombia, 12.00

34, NR, Belgium, 10.96

35, 20, Brazil, 10.50

36, 30, Nigeria, 10.00

36, 30, New Caledonia, 10.00

36, NR, Greece, 10.00

39, 33, Myanmar, 9.50

40, NR, Ireland, 8.49

41, 48, Austria, 8.14

42, 33, Ghana, 7.50

42, 33, American Samoa, 7.50

42, NR, Sri Lanka, 7.50

45, 49, Lithuania, 7.00

46, 44, Ukraine, 6.69

47, 38, Virgin Islands, 5.00

48, NR, Belarus, 4.78

49, NR, Slovakia, 4.75

50, NR, Slovenia, 4.35

51, NR, Poland, 4.28

52, 39, Aruba, 4.25

53, NR, Switzerland, 4.12

54, 41, Zimbabwe, 3.75

54, 41, Fiji, 3.75

56, NR, Romania, 3.38

57, 43, Guatemala, 3.25

58, 45, Malaysia, 2.25

59, NR, Israel, 2.09

60, 45, Lesotho, 2.00

61, NR, Finland, 1.93

62, 47, Bahamas, 1.75

63, NR, Bulgaria, 1.72

64, NR, Georgia, 1.42

65, 51, Cambodia, 1.38

66, NR, Portugal, 1.36

67, NR, Hungary, 1.17

68, NR, San Marino, 0.83

69, NR, Serbia, 0.62

70, NR, Norway, 0.54

71, NR, Malta, 0.44

72, NR, Turkey, 0.25

72, NR, Latvia, 0.25

72, 51, Cameroon, 0.25

72, 51, Samoa, 0.25