The WBSC World Rankings is a ranking system for national teams in baseball, softball, and baseball5. The teams of the member nations of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the world governing body for both sports, 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.
Five rankings are published by the WBSC, they are: Men's Baseball, Women's Baseball, Women's Softball, Men's Softball, and Baseball5 (co-ed).[3]
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. As a result from the merger with softball in 2013, the WBSC is also responsible for ranking international men's and women's softball teams.[4] Beginning in 2015, the rankings also determine which 12 teams participate in the WBSC Premier12 tournament.
In 2025, the WBSC will start a new ranking methodology. Only the most recent edition of any event will be included in the rankings, and teams will keep the ranking points from any event for four years.[5]
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.[11]
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.[12]
Coed
Baseball5
Baseball5 is a mixed-gender sport, with each team of 5 active players having at least 2 players of either gender.
Criticism of the WBSC World Ranking focus on how the rankings are calculated and how each countries' strengths are often misrepresented.[15]
The current system strongly favors the winners of the WBSC Premier12, awarding 1380 points. This is greater than that of winning the World Baseball Classic, which awards just 1150 points. This practice has led to some controversies, as players on the active roster for Major League Baseball, arguably the world's best players, do not participate in the former competition.[16] This in turn causes the WBSC ranking to be disproportionately unfavorable to countries with more players in MLB, such as the United States or the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic, despite winning the 2013 WBC, have never been in the top 5 rankings, despite having the second most active players in MLB, just behind the U.S.[17]
Additionally, the current rankings system take junior competitions, such as the U-12 Baseball World Cup and the likes of them, into account under the same ranking hierarchy. [18] Critics argue that this practice alters the rankings to misrepresent how well the senior men's team perform by including irrelevant competitions within the ranking.
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