Czechs lost a spot in WBSC ranking, but are still second in Europe
World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) release updated men’s baseball ranking as the year came to close. Unfortunately, Czechs lost a spot this year.
Despite achieving a great success in qualifying for World Baseball Classic, Czechs lost a spot in world rankings, after being overtaken by Porto Rico. One of the reasons is the absence of Czech national teams in U18 and U23 World Cups. Nevertheless, while losing a spot, Czechs only miss 220 points to 12th Panama. Furthermore, WBC will award a lot of points and one or two wins could mean a huge point boost. Success at the home European Championship could also move Czech Republic to TOP 12, which would guarantee a spot in Premier12.
Only Netherlands is currently above Czech Republic as far as European teams go. Dutch jumped a spot, from eight to seventh spot. Czechs are thus the second best team in the old continent, but Italy is now coming closer, as they decreased their deficit to 103 points.
On the other hand, Slovakia improved their standings and moved to 34th place.
The first two places remained unchanged. Japan remains in the top spot, followed by Taiwan. Success in youth categories moved United Stated forward, as they finished the last year in the 5th place.
Mariana Islands became the most improved team, moving 18 spots and now occupying 60th spot. On the other hand, Indonesia lost 33 spots, moving to 72th place.
