Talk:WBSC World Rankings

Rankings based on average
FAB!AN -- I appreciate the effort that's you've apparently put into for this section you added, and can see where your argument comes from in terms of averaging the points rather than totalling them. But at the same time there'd be an argument that says your system ignores the idea that to have qualified for various tournaments the team in question has to be of a particular standard, while also ignoring that some confederations have more tournaments that are sanctioned/recognised by the IBAF, so have more potential opportunities to score points. Suffice to say, I imagine it would be difficult to come up with a system that everyone agrees is fair and takes into account all conceivable factors.

My main concern though with that section would be that it would seem to come under the heading of original research. The fact that you use the phrase "the rankings should be based on average" without attributing it to a source, leading me to believe that its your opinion, and what we put in articles isn't supposed to be a reflection of our opinion only. I've not done anything to that section yet, but I think that unless you're able to offer some source calling for the change like an official from the IBAF, or one of the nations, or a recognised baseball journalist/commentator, that the average section would need to go, and go soon. Afaber012 (talk) 07:26, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Ranking list
I've expanded the list to include the top 20, and colour-coded it based on Confederation using the colours already picked from Template:International baseball. (Paler versions of them so its easier to read the text.) The colour-coding was just to help identify where teams are from - illustrating that at the moment at least, the Americas are pretty dominant in baseball, followed by Asia - and follows the example from the FIFA World Rankings article. The expanded list is for 2 reasons. The first is just personal preference: 20 just seems to be a more "round" number than 16, a more natural cutoff. The second is that it allows the list to show at least one team from each confederation, and so shows where the top team from each is in relation to the other teams.

Personally, I'd actually like to have all 44 teams listed, if for no other reason than the sake of completeness, but am not sure how anyone else might feel about that.  Afaber012  (talk) 22:51, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

World Port Tournament Update
There's been nothing yet from the IBAF to suggest that the WPT will be included in the world rankings, at least nothing that I've found. Like with the averages section you added, unless you've got a source you can cite to say it will be counted (or that is has, like in a new release of the rankings) the changes in points need to go. Given that they're listed under the heading of the WBC's release date, and the reference that is cited gives the points of that date, I'm going to change it back now.  Afaber012  (talk) 00:06, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Continental tournaments
I'm confused about what constitutes the COPABE championship. The International Baseball box attached to the bottom of this and many other articles makes it look like the Baseball tournament at the Pan-American Games is the continental championship. Is that so? If not, do the Pan-American Games count toward the IBAF ranking? I guess I would just like to see a complete list of the events that factor into the ranking. MrArticleOne (talk) 21:51, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
 * As it stands at the moment, there's not an official list of tournaments that do - or that don't - count towards the ranking system. The closest that I've seen is the document that's used as the IBAF Ranking Notes reference on a few relevant pages. Though it lists several tournaments in there at the World level, it doesn't list any specific tournaments at the continental level. Even when it does list tournaments, it uses the phrase "including, but not limited to, the tournaments below", so there's the possibility of others being included as well. This is presumably why the World Port Tournament mentioned above was included for so long on the page though it didn't wind up being included in the ranking. At the Continental level, some continents have several tournaments included in the ranking points (like COPABE with 3 - the Pan-American Games, the COPABE Americas Cup and the COPABE Continental Championship) and others have just one (like BCO with 1). The way I see it, any tournament can potentially be included in the rankings. Presumably the IBAF has a set of criteria or guidelines somewhere to decide what does and doesn't qualify, they just don't seem to have made it clear or obviously available what they are.  Afaber012  (talk) 02:48, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds like it functions similarly to the FIBA rankings, but isn't as well-organized. MrArticleOne (talk) 12:21, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Update?
The lead of the article says the next event factoring into the rankings is the World Port Tournament, which is over. Later on, the little table says that the Asian Baseball Championship is the next event factoring into the rankings; it, too, is over. Anybody know if they have been updated, and if not, why not? MrArticleOne (talk) 04:21, 10 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I have my doubts about the newest update IBAF made in the rankings. Since when is Afghanistan a member of the Baseball Federation of Asia?
 * I don't know when they joined, but I only discovered the update last night, and had to do some digging to find out what events were involved. Apparently they were involved with Pakistan, Hong Kong and Thailand in the Asian Baseball Cup; some sort of qualifying tournament to the Asian Baseball Championship.  Afaber012  (talk) 22:23, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Updated Rankings
Updated rankings have been released: http://www.insidethegames.biz/media/file/25956/WBSC%20BASEBALL%20WORLD%20RANKING%20AND%20METHODOLOGY-%2016%20Mar%202016%20%281%29.pdf MrArticleOne (talk) 16:54, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
 * In light of the updated rankings, the discussion of the system's methodology needs to be reworked, as the scale is all different now. MrArticleOne (talk) 11:37, 29 March 2016 (UTC)