The world baseball ranking, managed by the WBSC, has its own particular connotation. It is in fact updated very few times during the year, and sometimes it happens that it is not renewed even on New Year’s Eve, that December 31st which more often than not marks the entry into a new world ranking.
This means that, after the World Baseball Classic 2023, which by its nature has important differences with what happens at the WBSC level, there is no new ranking, but the one present on December 31st remains.
World Baseball Classic 2023: Japan beats the USA to win the tournament for the third time. Italy finishes fifth!
This is made up as follows:
1 Japan 4179
2 China Taipei 3819
3 USA 3449
4 South Korea 3428
5 Mexico 3273
6 Venezuela 2723
2468 if 7
8 Cuba 2246
9 Dominican Republic 1894
10 Australia 1889
Italy is in sixteenth position, at an altitude of 1206, behind the Czech Republic and ahead of Nicaragua. If the Premier 12 had taken place this year, then the national team would not have been able to participate, given that the first 12 selections of the ranking play it.
The move to 2024, on the other hand, means that the selection led by Mike Piazza can attempt to overtake against the four countries that precede it, namely Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico and Canada. To do this, however, will need a flash of primary importance at the European Championships, a fundamental hub of the season of the tricolor beat and run. Italy hasn’t won them since 2012, and in the Czech Republic, at the end of September, it is called upon to restore prestige to a tradition which in recent times has often seen it succumb to Dutch rule.
Photo: LiveMedia/Claudio Benedetto – LivePhotoSport.it
