It’s time for the year-end Continuum Baseball Rankings! This takes into account the Central American and Caribbean Games baseball tournament in November. And only that was used in updating this edition.

Originally, I was going to use the IBAF year-end ratings, but that led to a slight problem: It would break the system, as the best countries and worst countries would end up going so high or low numerically that I’d be unable to use them with the website I use to make these rankings.

So, I’ll instead be making up for that by using more games and events in future editions, using different “K-values” (basically how much a win or a loss can give points in) for each event based on the level of team placed in the event for each team. For example, if it’s a WBC tournament and the teams playing are the best that the country has to offer, they’ll be putting more points at stake than if, say, it’s a strictly-amateur affair. This will allow it to be more sensitive to games the higher the skills involved- so if, say, Team USA does well in the WBC, it would get more points than if, say, it had done well in a college exhibition series somewhere. This is a bit different then how “K-Values” are used in some other places, but I think it’ll be good.

More information on that later.

For now, however, below the jump you can see the differences that have occurred because of the CACG’s. As you can see, Cuba (which won the tournament) jumped up to number 3, past the DR. The biggest mover and shaker was Nicaragua, which jumped from 18 to 14 thanks to their good performance (they came in second). Guatemala made it’s first appearance but is waaaaaay back at 43.

Stay tuned for more on the new system.

BASEBALL CONTINUUM RANKINGS AS OF DEC. 29 AFTER 2014 CENTRAL AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN GAMES (previous placement noted in parenthesis when different):

1.USA 356.072998689

2.Japan 340.60430423

3.Cuba 323.02107313472 (4)

4.Dominican Republic 297.35238812281 (3)

5. Netherlands 275.75503976547

6.Taipei 261.97398601937

7.Puerto Rico 230.65210999609

8.Canada 221.291148645
9. Korea 220.35663715622

10.Venezuela 171.3467905824

11. Italy 170.70692129221

12.Mexico 130.95391549169

13.Panama 88.953789274824

14.Nicaragua 83.014039023317 (18)

15.Australia 82.3756337603 (14)

16.Colombia 60.4698693683 (15)

17.Brazil 59.8168005729 (16)

18. Spain 48.403297343138 (17)

19.China 0.62170545744473

20. Germany -0.028543438214717

21.Pakistan -40.511528387498

22.Argentina -49.5976341618

23.Philippines -60.1831994271

24.Thailand -98.244139529408

25. Czech Republic -105.10378912265

26.Israel -106.31847810509

27.Great Britain -124.8770136378

28.New Zealand -150.690146917

29.Sri Lanka -183.131130568

30. France -188.29700056625

31.South Africa -191.112252876

32.Hong Kong -203.89484741574

33.Afghanistan -244.125590861

34. Russia -263.79406777846

35.Indonesia -264.99396798

36.Austria -295.190503818

37.Ukraine -310.387960257

38. Croatia -324.45557142313

39.Guam -329.861338136

40.Nepal -353.138578515

41.Bulgaria -357.622894242

42.Lithuania -380.098754586

43.Guatemala -384.29410562585 (NEW)

44.Switzerland -392.468931222 (43)

45.Slovakia -406.776541519 (44)

46.Poland -420.869348451 (45)

47.Belarus -432.207739417 (46)

48. Slovenia -437.37168583471 (47)

49.Ireland -443.88628955372 (48)

50.Romania -458.21222918015 (49)

51. Belgium -469.10088300531 (50)

52.Finland -484.05281749415 (51)

53.Mongolia -488.30181330038 (52)

54.Latvia -499.05281749415 (53)

55.Hungary -513.21222918015 (54)

56. Sweden -518.97693608065 (55)

57.Norway -529.89345315788 (56)

58.Greece -530.85145334835 (57)