Image taken from the World Baseball Softball Confederation's official website; photo courtesy of CNA
Taipei, Jan. 11 (CNA) Taiwan ranked fourth in the World Baseball Softball Confederation's (WBSC) 2017 end-of-year men's baseball world rankings, which weigh the performance of a country's national team in sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period.
According to the rankings announced Thursday, Japan remains at the top of the list for the third straight year, followed by the United States and South Korea in second and third places, respectively.
While Taiwan maintained its fourth-ranking position for a second consecutive year, it did not add much to its cumulative rankings points, with a poor overall performance in 2017.
The national team did not manage a single win during last year's World Baseball Classic held in South Korea, and finished in 14th place out of the 16 participating countries.
Taiwan's men's baseball rankings points are now at 3,808, more than 1,000 points behind South Korea's 4,950 and only about 100 more points than Cuba's 3,677 in fifth place.
Taiwan's women's baseball was ranked sixth worldwide, while its women's softball was ranked fifth.
