How the baseball and softball world rankings work
The WBSC ranks national teams, not players. Every WBSC-sanctioned tournament gives ranking points from the winner down to the last team, and a team's ranking is the total of its points from the last four years.
- Top events (the World Baseball Classic, Premier12, the softball World Cups, the Women's Baseball World Cup) give the winner 1000 to 1200 points.
- Continental championships and major multi-sport games (Olympics, Pan American Games, Asian Games) give 200 to 500, depending on how strong the field is.
- Smaller events give less; friendlies least of all.
The ranking matters: the top 12 in men's baseball on 31 December are invited to the Premier12, which decides two LA28 places.
Points within a tournament
The last team gets 10% of the winner's points. Every place in between is spaced evenly:
Gap between places = (winner's points − last place's points) ÷ (number of teams − 1)
The WBSC's own example (Men's Softball World Cup, 12 teams): winner 1,200 (plus a 180 bonus), last 120; gap = 1,080 ÷ 11 = 98.18; second 1,102, third 1,004 and so on.
For two-stage events, the gap is spread over the group stage and the final stage together.
How strong was the field?
For events whose winner's points are not fixed (continental championships: 200 to 500), the winner's points are built from the teams taking part:
- a team quality bonus for each team by its world ranking on 31 December the year before (in the WBSC's example, 50 points each for teams ranked 2nd, 5th and 11th, 25 for 16th and 24th, 10 for 34th, 5 for 48th and 72nd);
- a top-12 bonus if top-12 teams take part (top 6 in women's baseball).
The WBSC's own example: eight teams ranked 2, 5, 11, 16, 24, 34, 48 and 72 give 220 points of team quality, plus 50 for three top-12 teams: the winner gets 270, the last team 27.
Small events are cut: four teams 80%, three 60%, two 30% (otherwise two-team events count as friendlies).
How long points last
Exactly four years. One edition of each event always stays on the ranking; for events held every two years, two editions stay.
A worked example
Made up to show the arithmetic. An Asian continental baseball championship with eight teams and a winner's value of 270: last place 27; gap = (270 − 27) ÷ 7 = 34.71. Fourth place: 270 − 3 × 34.71 = 165.87, rounded up to 166.
Variations
| Ranking | Covered here |
|---|---|
| Men's baseball, women's softball, women's baseball, men's softball, Baseball5 | The common method |
| Age-group rankings | No |