Taiwan moved up a notch to fourth place in the World Baseball Rankings, the World Baseball Softball Confederation said yesterday.
Securing a score of 548.48 for the year, Taiwan was behind a new No. 1 side, the US (759.27), Japan (695.85) and Cuba (632.98).
Eleven of the world’s Top 20 ranked nations come from the Americas (North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean); eight nations, or 40 percent, come from Asia and Europe; one comes from Oceania, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based confederation said in a statement.
Having a “highly productive year,” the US has surpassed the previously top-ranked Cuba to become the new leader in the world of baseball for the first time since the implementation of the World Baseball Ranking system by the International Baseball Federation in 2009, according to the statement.
Rounding out the top 10 were the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Canada, South Korea, Puerto Rico and Venezuela in that order.
The World Baseball Rankings calculations are based on the points accumulated from continental championships and Baseball World Cups (including qualifiers), which are weighted accordingly from youth (under-12) to professional level, within the previous 48 months.
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