Some stuff at the bottom in the August 2, 2014 Continuum Baseball Rankings

It’s been awhile, but it’s time to update the Continuum Baseball Rankings! The C-Levels of the European Championships took place recently, and since it included previously-included Continuum Rankings teams like Israel, Ireland and Slovenia and involved senior teams (i.e. the best players they could round up given circumstances), it counts in the Rankings! Of course, the best players that these teams could get aren’t necessarily that great (the best rosters in this tournament would probably be beaten by fairly good D3 college teams)- Israel didn’t have Minor League ringers this time around like in the WBC Qualifiers, for example. But still, it counts, and Israel won it.

So, the movements in this installment (all at the bottom of the rankings, more or less):

Slovenia and Ireland swapped places, with Slovenia (which finished 2nd in the tournament) taking 47th while Ireland (4th) fell to 48.
Romania entered the rankings at 49, pushing Mongolia (inactive) back to 50.
Finland, Latvia, Hungary and Norway made their Rankings debut, being 51, 52, 53, and 54, respectively. Norway is now the lowest-rated team in the Rankings, and would, if they were to face a Senior USA team (which could mean anything from Indy Leaguers all the way up to MLB-filled WBC teams), lose over 99.39% of the time.

Lastly, a note about methodology: To make updates a bit more active, I am considering making it so that the Rankings cover everything 18 and over. This would bring in results by college teams and the like. Such a change won’t be made until 2015, but it’s something to note.

Anyway, current rankings are after the jump:

BASEBALL CONTINUUM RANKINGS AS OF AUGUST 2, 2014 (previous placement noted in parenthesis when different):

1.USA 356.072998689

2.Japan 340.60430423

3.Dominican Republic 297.07461146878

4.Cuba 291.78644987379

5.Netherlands 264.261570023

6.Taipei 262.924034149

7.Puerto Rico 237.35020806575

8.Canada 221.291148645

9.Korea 200.567695081

10.Venezuela 194.26866525288

11.Mexico 138.28743278

12. Italy 154.418157844

13.Panama 123.568362

14.Australia 82.3756337603

15.Colombia 60.4698693683

16.Brazil 59.8168005729

17.Nicaragua 39.4041924339

18.Spain 33.5452812297

19.Germany 12.4880561214

20.China -10.8089234424

21.Pakistan -32.4143431354

22.Argentina -49.5976341618

23.Philippines -60.1831994271

24.Great Britain -69.9902810789

25.Thailand -96.7578503757

26.Israel -106.31847810509

27.Czech Republic -128.920611489

28.New Zealand -150.690146917

29.Sri Lanka -183.131130568

30.Hong Kong -189.73697868

31.South Africa -191.112252876

32.France -219.99396798

33.Afghanistan -244.125590861

34.Russia -247.890646024

35.Indonesia -264.99396798

36.Croatia -275.710019778

37.Austria -295.190503818

38.Ukraine -310.387960257

39.Guam -329.861338136

40.Nepal -353.138578515

41.Bulgaria -357.622894242

42.Lithuania -380.098754586

43.Switzerland -392.468931222

44.Slovakia -406.776541519

45.Poland -420.869348451

46.Belarus -432.207739417

47. Slovenia -437.37168583471 (48)

48.Ireland -443.88628955372 (47)

49. Romania -458.21222918015 (N)

50.Mongolia -481.960266204 (49)

51.Finland -484.05281749415 (N)

52.Latvia -499.05281749415 (N)

53.Hungary -513.21222918015 (N)

54. Norway -529.89345315788 (N)

BASEBALL CONTINUUM RATINGS AS OF AUGUST 2, 2014 (previous placement noted in parenthesis when different):