WBSC World Rankings

[3] In January 2009, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) first published a listing in rank order of its member associations to provide a basis for comparison of the relative strengths of these teams.

Though primarily focused on the respective men's senior teams of member nations, the current ranks also include points awarded based on results at the IBAF 'AAA' (Under 18) Junior and 'AA' (Under 16) Youth Championships held during the tracking period.

The effort to unify the sports resulted in the merger of the IBAF with the International Softball Federation in 2013 to create the WBSC.

[14] This in turn causes the WBSC ranking to be disproportionately unfavorable to countries with more players in the MLB, such as the United States or the Dominican Republic.

In fact, former WBC champions Dominican Republic have never been in the top 5 rankings, despite having the second most active players in the MLB, just behind the United States.