New World Rankings released

The WBSC released the new World Rankings today.

https://twitter.com/WBSCBaseball/status/710794210555854848

As expected Japan remained in first place as did the USA remained in second. Chinese Taipei moved up a spot and Korea moved up four due to their great performance during the inaugural Premier 12. Cuba dropped to fifth place.

The biggest free fall made team Kingdom of the Netherlands. The team dropped from fifth place to the tenth. Even the Italians do have a better ranking now.

One of the reasons that the Dutch made a free fall is the lack of participation in several U World Cups. Where other countries in the top ten participated, the Dutch did not participate in the U-12, U-15 and U18 World Cups in the past few years.

The early exit during the Premier 12 tournament (Quarter finals loss vs runner up USA) did not help either to collect enough points to get a higher position.

Notable feat: Aruba and Curacao, whose players are the back bone of team Kingdom of the Netherlands, are also ranked in this world ranking. Aruba is ranked 32nd and Curacao is in 66th place.

If you click the picture in the Twitter post, you can see the complete rankings.