The Modern Prometheus: Stitching Together the WPBL

SUMMARY

In this article, former college English professor, athlete agent, and sports attorney, Lee Walpole Lassiter, draws parallels between the art of assembling a winning baseball team and the story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Lee’s blog highlights the importance of key roles like the catcher, who acts as the team's eyes and central nervous system, and emphasizes the hidden value of versatile players such as Andreanne Leblanc.

As the inaugural WPBL draft moves into its critical late rounds, the piece warns that simply collecting talent isn't enough—team culture and identity are essential to avoid creating a dysfunctional group. The closing metaphor urges general managers to nurture their creation, suggesting that with the right approach, they could make history and build something extraordinary.

Today, we are not just talking baseball. We are talking about creation. 

We are standing at the edge of the laboratory. The lightning rods are up. The switches are thrown. The Women’s Professional Baseball League is about to hold its inaugural draft. Four teams—San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston—are attempting to do exactly what Victor Frankenstein did in Mary Shelley’s 1818 masterpiece: 

They are assembling a living body from disparate parts. 

Now, as a former college English professor, I look at this inaugural draft and I see a Gothic text. As an agent and sports attorney? I see the greatest high-stakes experiment in sports history. We have 120 players. Different countries. Different generations. Some are fresh out of college; some have been playing since the flip phone era. 

The question isn’t just "Who do you draft?" The question is: Will it live? 

PART 1: THE MODERN PROMETHEUS

(The #1 Overall Pick)

KELSIE WHITMORE

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Part 1: The Modern Prometheus (The #1 Overall Pick) 

So let’s open the proverbial text. San Francisco holds the first pick. In literary terms, they are the Primary Creator. They get to choose the heart of the creature. 

Mary Shelley wrote, "I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing." 

That "spark of being" for San Francisco has to be Kelsie Whitmore. 

If you are building a monster—and I mean that in the most complimentary, competitive sense—you need a spine that can handle the voltage. Whitmore is a pitcher and an outfielder. She has played professional ball against men in the Atlantic League. She is the foundational anatomical structure. You draft her because she doesn't just play a position; she is the system. She is the proof of concept. 

Part 2: The "Unhallowed Arts" (The International Stars) 

Now, Victor Frankenstein didn’t just grab parts from his backyard. He went to charnel houses; he went to the dissecting rooms. He sourced materials globally. 

The WPBL is doing the same. This isn’t a local story; it’s a global anthology. 

If San Francisco takes the American heart in Whitmore, look at what’s available from the East. Ayami Sato from Japan. 

Y'all, listen to me. In the novel, the creature is described as having a "gigantic stature." In baseball terms, Sato is a giant. She’s a multiple-time World Cup MVP. Her curveball defies physics—it’s practically supernatural. If you want your creature to have an arm that can strike down the gods, you draft Sato. 

Then you have the European and Latin connections. Melissa Mayeux from France—the first woman on the MLB international registration list. Samaria Benitez from Mexico. 

These aren't just "shortstops." These are the sinews. These are the fast-twitch fibers that make the creature move. You cannot build a functional beast without elite middle infield defense. It won’t walk. It will stumble. 

Part 3: The Theme of Isolation (The O’Sullivan Sisters) 

Let’s turn to Chapter 17. This is my favorite part of the novel. The Creature finds Victor on the glacier and makes a demand. He says: "I am alone and miserable... My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create." 

The Creature understood something fundamental: Biology needs connection. 

This brings me to the O'Sullivan Sisters. 

We have Claire, the power hitter—the "force." And we have Elodie, the defensive specialist—the "finesse." 

Here is the narrative arc: A team is going to draft one, and the biological imperative will demand they draft the other. It is the "Companion" storyline. If I’m an agent for Boston or New York, I am telling the GM: "Do not let this creature walk alone." You draft Claire for the bat in Round 2, and you grab Elodie in Round 3 to lock down the outfield. You create a symbiotic organism. 

PART 4: THE PHILOSOPHERS

(THE VETERANS)

MICAELA MINNER

HOMA SCHWEERS

MEGGIE MEIDLINGER

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Part 4: The Philosophers (The Veterans) 

Now, Frankenstein is a book about knowledge. Dangerous knowledge. Who holds the knowledge in this league? 

The Veterans. The women who have been playing this game since before some of these rookies were born. 

Micaela Minner. Homa Schweers. Meggie Meidlinger. 

These women are 38, 40 years old. In a youth-obsessed industry, some might call them "old parts." I call them the brain stem. 

Shelley wrote: "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example." 

That is what these women provide. You draft Homa Schweers not because she’s going to steal 40 bases, but because when the lightning strikes and the rookie is terrified, Homa knows how to ground the electricity. You need that bio-ethical wisdom in the clubhouse, or the whole experiment tears itself apart. 

Part 5: The Assembly (Strategy for Rounds 2-5) 

So, how do we stitch this together? 

Round 2: You need the limbs. The pitching depth. Look for Claire Eccles—a lefty knuckleballer. A knuckleball is a gothic pitch, isn’t it? It flutters. It’s unpredictable. It’s beautiful. 

Round 3: You need the hands. Hinano Beppu from Japan for second base. Kailyn Bearpaw for power at first base. 

Round 4: You need the eyes. The Catchers. Denae Benites. The catcher sees the whole field. They control the nervous system of the game. 

And don't sleep on Andreanne Leblanc from Canada. A switch-hitter. In literary terms, she is an unreliable narrator—the defense never knows which side she’s coming from. That is value. 

Part 6: The "Monster" is Alive (Closing Thoughts) 

We are approaching the final rounds. The "Moneyball" rounds. This is where you find the Marti Sementellis, the Naomi Bresslers. The spare parts that end up saving your life in the third act. 

But here is the warning from the text. 

Victor Frankenstein failed because he assembled the body, but he refused to love it. He was horrified by his own creation. He didn't nurture it. 

The GMs of San Francisco, LA, New York, and Boston cannot make that mistake. Drafting the players is just the anatomy. The culture is the soul. If you throw these 30 women - that will be whittled down to 15 - together and don't give them a cohesive identity, you don't get a team. You get a monster that destroys the village. 

But—if you get it right? If the pieces fit? 

You get, to quote the Doctor himself, "A new species [that] would bless me as its creator and source." 

We are watching history, folks. The lightning is about to strike. 

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