The Dolan way

I am going to ask you to do something that might make you kind of uncomfortable. For some of you, it might be out of character.
I am asking you to give Larry and Paul Dolan, the father-son ownership group of the Indians, credit.
Give them credit because, for better or worse, they have formulated a plan, hired baseball people to carry it out, and are staying out of the way and signing the checks.
Some of you cringe at the the Dolans' bargain-basement approach. You know the prime-of-career likes of Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome will never be seen in Tribe uniforms again unless oil is discovered under Jacobs Field.
(Jacobs Field will have a new corporate name after the 2006 season, but I won't get into that right now.)
The Dolans know they can't compete with the Red Sox, Yankees, or even the Orioles in baseball's inherently unfair, salary-capless financial landscape, so they are doing the only thing they can do: play it close to the vest, and pour money into what they can control instead of fretting over what they can't control.
Since taking over the team in 2000, the Dolans have largely eschewed free agent signings to pour money into their farm system. The farm system, through drafts or trades, has in turn yielded the likes of Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, C.C. Sabathia, Coco Crisp, Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee.
You might not like it, but these guys are the so-called "core players" of the future. And the Dolans are putting their money where their mouths are.
Martinez, Hafner and Sabathia have all been signed to contract extensions, the most recent this week when Sabathia inked a two-year, $17.75 million extension that will keep him with the Indians through 2008.
Compared to the quicksand on which the Browns and Cavaliers have recently been built, the Indians under Larry and Paul Dolan are the systematic, talent-identifying, talent-cultivating, stay-the-course-even-when-it gets-bumpy rocks of Cleveland sports.
But even in a steadfast environment, change is imminent.
The irony in baseball is that, if you are a stadium-driven revenue club in a mid-sized market like Cleveland, you want to develop players good enough that you will one day not be able to keep them. According to published reports, Sabathia met with his agents this winter. When they showed him the contract he could be looking at in free agency after the 2006 season, Sabathia's loyalty to the Indians shrunk exponentially with each passing digit.
It took bonding with his teammates in spring training to convince Sabathia he wanted to stay here past 2006.
Sentimentality might work once, but if Sabathia keeps on the pace that has seen him win 55 games before his 25th birthday, the Indians will most likely lose him after 2008. He will simply command too much money on the open market.
Martinez and Hafner are struggling now, but you'd be smart to bet they are talented enough that they will be in a similar situation when their contracts are up.
Chances are one or more of those guys are going to be dealt off for prospects before they become free agents.
It's loyalty to a system and not loyalty to players that defines the Dolan regime. It's not fan-friendly, and it means the team won't be able to contend every year, if they do at all. But in the world of small-market ownership in Major League Baseball, it is one of the few ways a team can survive.