The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) has published its year-end 2012 IBAF Men’s Baseball World Rankings. Cuba remains at the top, followed by the United States, Japan and Korea. Chinese Taipei moved into fifth place with a strong fall performance.
IBAF Baseball World Cup title holder the Netherlands dropped from fifth to seventh. European champion Italy moved up to ninth. Spain thanks to their win at the World Baseball Classic Qualifier became the third best European squad in 16th. Germany (17), Great Britain (21) and the Czech Republic (25) are also in the top 25.
Colombia (19), Brazil (20), Israel (28) and New Zealand (29) took advantage of strong results at the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers (Brazil, Israel, New Zealand) and at the IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship (Colombia) to make up ground in the rankings.
Speaking of 2012, Chinese Taipei tops all teams in the calendar year with a couple of top-three results at the 15U, 18U Baseball World Championships, the WBCQ and the BFA Asian Baseball Championship. Canada (WBCQ winner, 2nd 18U BWC), Japan (Asian Champion), the United States (18U BWC winner), Venezuela (15U BWC winner), Spain (WBCQ winner, 3rd Europe), Brazil (WBCQ winner, 5th 15U BWC), Colombia (4th 18U BWC, 3rd WBCQ), Panama, Korea, Germany (11th 15U BWC, 4th Europe, 2nd WBCQ) and Italy (European Champion, 10th 15U BWC, 10th 18U BWC) also left their mark this season.
Major changes in the IBAF Men’s Baseball World Rankings could be ahead with the 2013 World Baseball Classic coming up next March.