What the IBAF rankings should look like? And Cuba doesn't deserve the #1 spot anymore

[quinnystar27]

Let me start of by saying I have never been a fan of the IBAF. They failed miserably to develop baseball up until the last few years when they decided to step up a notch with help of MLB. So I dont really like the IBAF world rankings but they are the only real world rankings available.

My final bone to pick is with Cuba. I love cuba I have been there many times even once last month and I am disappointed in their baseball. They should be number 1 but they let politics get in the way. They could easily invite their top players in MLB or foreign leagues back but politics dont let them do that. You can talk about the trade embargo and whatever but it wouldn't violate anything if they called up chapman and said hey pitch for us. With that being said I believe cuba is still a top baseball country but no longer worthy of the crown. They only really have the crown because they played in all IBAF tournaments.


New Ranking in my opinion:

1.) Japan
2.) PR/DR (whoever wins the classic)
3.) Netherlands
4.) USA
5.) Korea
6.) PR/DR
7.)Cuba
8.) Taiwan
9.) Italy
10.) Mexico
11.) Venezuela

I just did the top 11. Why did I rank it like this? Normally I would give the top spot to the winner of the classic but I am sure some people would not like it. I really based it on the strength of national teams when they played the "best" of other countries.

Japan has done very well in all classics 3 time semifinalists and two time finalists. PR/DR whoever wins with my personal preference being DR. I dropped korea down a few spots because they had a bad tournament this year. Netherlands really deserves a top 3 spot the way the played.

Finally I gave italy and mexico a higher spot because they performed better then my home country Venezuela. Though Venezuela played some major players DR and PR in the first round the two finalists I really felt Venezuela played a poor tournament and should have made it out of the first round.

I know i might get some flack for my rankings but the best baseball rankings should be based on how the best of the best perform against each other not how they perform in meaningless IBAF tournaments. Cuba dominated the IBAF for a long time but they have had some trouble against classic teams.

[Pere]

At least the IBAF has an objective formula. It may be arbitrary, it may be improperly weighted, but personal preference doesn't come into it at all.

[cutchemist42]

I was actually looking at the IBAF rankings and I still think Cuba has a chance of remaining first after this. I sure hope Puerto Rico and DR rightfully pass Australia and Italy.

[Nutt]

I was actually looking at the IBAF rankings and I still think Cuba has a chance of remaining first after this. I sure hope Puerto Rico and DR rightfully pass Australia and Italy.

Do the rankings come out yearly, quarterly, or bi-annually?

[Cincy Fan]

Baseball America had an article on the American college professor that drafted them originally. He first did them as an exercise and after the fact IBAF requested to use them as their official rankings.

What you'd have to do is remove the 2009 World Baseball Classic from the rankings and add the 2013 World Baseball Classic to the rankings.

Cuba would probably stay in the lead as they pretty much matched their '09 performance. Japan, South Korea, and Venezuela would all go down a bit. Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and the Netherlands will all go up a good amount.

[Cincy Fan]

Pos Team Plus Minus Equals
1 Cuba 766.02 83 76 773.02
2 United States 733.25 76 90 719.25
3 Japan 664.42 180 300 544.42
4 Chinese Taipei 499.79 62 20 541.79
5 Netherlands 476.76 90 69 497.76
6 Canada 485.00 34 27 492.00
7 Dominican Republic 204.20 300 55 449.20
8 Puerto Rico 204.23 240 83 361.23
9 Korea 518.20 55 240 333.2
10 Venezuela 450.13 48 180 318.13
11 Italy 214.80 69 48 235.80
12 Mexico 208.98 41 62 187.98
13 Australia 211.97 6 34 183.97
14 Panama 141.99 0 13 128.99
15 Nicaragua 125.01 0 0 125.01
16 Spain 109.51 13 0 122.51
17 Germany 96.83 0 0 96.83
18 Brazil 76.23 20 0 96.23
19 Colombia 86.25 0 0 86.25
20 China 94.48 27 41 80.48