IBAF World Rankings

Top 20 Rankings as of 8 October 2014[1]
Rank	Team	Points	Confederation
1	United States	766.02	COPABE
2	Japan	705.18	BFA
3	Cuba	612.98	COPABE
4	Chinese Taipei	505.48	BFA
5	Netherlands	419.50	CEB
6	Canada	353.52	COPABE
7	Dominican Republic	349.18	COPABE
8	South Korea	280.90	BFA
9	Puerto Rico	276.50	COPABE
10	Venezuela	247.00	COPABE
11	Italy	178.18	CEB
12	Panama	128.42	COPABE
13	Mexico	123.28	COPABE
14	Brazil	116.61	COPABE
15	Australia	105.82	BCO
16	Spain	105.52	CEB
17	Germany	78.90	CEB
18	Colombia	69.00	COPABE
19	China	68.25	BFA
20	Israel	55.47	CEB

The IBAF World Rankings is a ranking system for men's national teams in baseball. The teams of the member nations of IBAF (International Baseball Federation), 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 IBAF-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.

The rankings will be updated following every event that qualifies for ranking points.

History

In January 2009, the 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.

Women's rankings

Women's Rankings as of 8 October 2012[2]
Rank	Team	Points	Confederation
1	Japan	200.00	BFA
2	United States	160.00	COPABE
3	Australia	123.33	BCO
4	Canada	110.00	COPABE
5	Venezuela	80.00	COPABE
6	Chinese Taipei	73.33	BFA
7	Netherlands	26.67	CEB
8	Cuba	23.33	COPABE
9	Hong Kong	20.00	BFA
10	Puerto Rico	10.00	COPABE
11	South Korea	6.67	BFA

In the wake of the International Olympic Committee's decision to cut baseball from the 2012 Olympics program, the IBAF has 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 initial Women's World Rankings are based upon results from past Women's Baseball World Cups. While the calculations to the women's rankings are similar to that of the men's, one main difference is that they will be inclusive of the three most recent IBAF Women's Baseball World Cups whereas the men's rankings only include the last two. Points will then be weighted to the most recent results.^[3]

Calculation method

Under the current system used, points are awarded to member nations based purely on their final position in recognised international tournaments.^[4] 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 association football, that is based solely on individual matches.

Points are awarded according to the following table:

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:

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 IBAF. 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 IBAF-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 IBAF re-releases the ranking list with the points from the most recent tournament added, and points from tournaments more than four years old removed.

Notes and references

External links

• IBAF.com

International Baseball IBAF World Rankings Teams Major World Events World Baseball Classic Women's Baseball World Cup WBSC Premier 12 Minor World Events Haarlem Baseball Week World Port Tournament University 21U Baseball World Cup 18U Baseball World Cup 15U Baseball World Cup 12U Baseball World Cup Defunct World Events Baseball World Cup Intercontinental Cup Olympics Women's Baseball World Series Universiade Africa African Baseball & Softball Association – All-Africa Games Americas Pan American Baseball Confederation – Pan American Games America Cup Caribbean Series Central American and Caribbean Games South American Games Asia Baseball Federation of Asia – Asian Championship Asian Games Junior (under 18) Southeast Asian Games SAARC Baseball Championship Asia Series Europe Confederation of European Baseball – European Championship European Cup "Final Four" Under-21 Junior (under 18) Youth (under 16) Juveniles (under 12) Oceania Baseball Confederation of Oceania – Oceania Championship South Pacific Games