Taiwan have dropped two spots to sixth in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s latest men’s baseball world rankings, which weigh the performance of national teams in sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period.
The world governing body for baseball and softball on Thursday released its newest rankings based on the performances of national teams from 2015 to this year and recent poor performances have seen Taiwan sink two places from fourth to sixth place.
With a cumulative score of 2,520, Taiwan have been passed by Cuba and Mexico, which rank fourth and fifth respectively.
As performances in 2014 are no longer taken into account, Taiwan’s scores from the 2014 U21 Baseball World Cup no longer cushion the nation’s relatively lackluster performances in the years since.
The national team did not manage a single win during last year’s World Baseball Classic in South Korea and finished in 14th place out of 16 nations.
Another a noteworthy shift in the top 10 was the return of the US to No. 1, a spot they have not held for three years, followed by Japan and South Korea in second and third place.
Taiwan’s women’s baseball and softball teams maintained their previous world rankings of sixth and fifth respectively.
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