According to Senior MLB Writer Ed Price at AOL Fanhouse, the Red Sox could be limited at the trade deadline this year because of the luxury tax.

That tax, which in the Red Sox’ case would be 22.5 percent of every dollar over $170 million in payroll, is based on the so-called “actual club payroll,” not the Opening Day payroll. So the pro-rated salaries of any players acquired in a trade would count toward that figure.

The Associated Press listed Boston’s Opening Day payroll as $162.7 million, although the luxury-tax figure will also include players on the 40-man roster and players’ benefit.

Thus, the Red Sox are about tapped out. The source said the front office would have to “jump through hoops” — make a strong case to ownership — just to add $500,000 in salary over the rest of the season. That’s the equivalent of a player making $1.1 million for the year.

Paying luxury tax this year would make Boston liable to a 30 percent luxury tax on payroll over $178 million in 2011, when Beckett, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester are due for raises.

If the Red Sox are having financial issues, nobody tell David Ortiz, who recently said that he wants a multi-year contract extension.

Even though Boston is still very much in the playoff hunt, it’s been an uphill battle for them in 2010. As Price notes in his article, roughly $45 million worth of Red Sox players are on the disabled list, including Josh Beckett ($12 million), Dustin Pedroia ($3.5) million, Victor Martinez ($7 million), Jason Varietk ($5 million), Clay Buchholz ($440,000), Mike Lowell ($12 million) and Jacoby Ellsbury ($500,000).

With their growing list of injuries, the Red Sox probably won’t be able to stay in contention in the second half at their current state. They could stand to add a reliever, an outfielder or perhaps even another starter, but if Price is right and Theo Epstein will be limited at the deadline, then we might be looking at a Boston-less postseason in a couple of months.

If their 7-2 loss to the Rangers on Thursday night was a taste of things to come, then the BoSox are in store for a long second half.

Down 1-0 heading into the seventh inning, you got the sense of “here we go again” for the National League in the All-Star Game. The pitching was excellent (the one run that the AL scored was unearned), but nobody was hitting and it appeared that the NL was destined to spend the rest of its existence in All-Star Game hell.

Then Braves’ catcher Brian McCann came to the plate with bases loaded and promptly unloaded them with a double to give the NL a 3-1 lead. The Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright, the Giants’ Brian Wilson and the Dodgers’ Jonathan Broxton followed with scoreless innings in the seventh, eighth and ninth to give the NL its first ASG victory in 13 years.

The pitching in most All-Star Games is usually good, but the NL’s staff was excellent on Tuesday night. They allowed just six hits and one earned run, while walking three batters and striking out eight. Roy Halladay had the most trouble in his 0.2 innings of work by allowing two hits, although neither run crossed home plate.

The pitching for the AL was also solid outside of the Yankees’ Phil Hughes, who had decent stuff but was smacked around in the fatal seventh inning. In just 0.1 innings of work, he gave up two runs on two hits, including McCann’s double.

Also noteworthy was how base running came into play late in the game for both sides. Down 1-0 in the seventh, Scott Rolen (who had reached on a single) took second and third on only a single by the Cardinals Matt Holliday because he read the ball off the bat perfectly. While he eventually scored on McCann’s double, Rolen’s savvy base running play was potentially huge because it put a runner at third with less then two outs and the NL down by one run.

On the flip side, the AL was threatening in the bottom of the ninth when David Ortiz singled to right to start the inning and John Buck hit what looked to be another single two batters later. But Ortiz didn’t read the play well enough and while the ball dropped in front of outfielder Marlon Byrd, he still had enough time to pick it up and make a good throw to second to nail Ortiz for the force out.

While it was a tough play for Ortiz to read, the gaff killed any momentum that the AL had built in the ninth and Broxton was able to retire Ian Kinsler to give the NL its first victory in over a decade.

David Ortiz belted 32 dingers over three rounds on Monday night to best Hanley Ramirez in the Home Run Derby.

From MLB.com:

“It means a lot to me,” Ortiz said. “Thanks to the fans for the support. Thanks to everyone for showing up. We do this for you guys. We want to make sure you guys enjoy the show.”

Though both Ortiz and Ramirez went deep a combined 21 times in the first and second rounds, the slate was wiped clean heading into the head-to-head finals competition.

Ortiz was the first of the two to take his swings, and he set the bar high. Though Ortiz’s production trailed off toward the end of his turn, his eight early blasts were enough to give him an insurmountable lead.

“Hanley is like a son to me. He grew up with us in Boston,” Ortiz said of the Marlins’ shortstop who began his career in the Red Sox’s organization.

The Brewers’ Corey Hart put on a clinic in the first round by sending 13 over the outfield wall, but tanked in the second round by not hitting any. Miguel Cabrera advanced to the semi-finals after hitting seven in the first round, while Matt Holliday hit five and Nick Swisher hit four.

Vernon Wells only hit two, while Chris Young went deep only once.

Don’t ask David Ortiz about his slow start. He doesn’t want to [Expletive] hear it.

From ESPN.com:

“Good,” he said, turning to face the reporters encircling him. “You guys wait till [expletive] happens, then you can talk [expletive]. Two [expletive] games, and already you [expletives] are going crazy.

“What’s up with that, man? [Expletive]. [Expletive] 160 games left. That’s a [expletive]. One of you [expletives] got to go ahead and hit for me.”

Ortiz struggled mightily to start last season, hitting just .185 during April and May with one home run and 18 RBIs.

In one respect, I don’t blame Big Papi for going off. The season is only two games old, so asking Ortiz about why he’s starting off slow is premature. He could still finish the month of April with a .330 batting average for all we know.

But at the same time, he’s got to relax. This is his 13th year in professional baseball so he should be well versed in how the media tends to operate. If he starts off slow again, they’re going to draw comparisons to last season. That’s just how things work in sports – for better or worse.

Steve Buckley of The Boston Herald thinks that fans will just have to deal with the fact that some of these players may not have known what substances they were actually taking in the past. Since the players might have been in the dark, the fans will never get answers.

In what continues to be a complicated issue in which facts and innuendo collide, creating an awkward, interpretative truth, it comes down to this: Anybody with an interest in baseball, from fans and media to industry employees and the players themselves, is forced, in the end, to make a judgment call about all this.

It’s a little like viewing an abstract painting: What you see, what you feel, may be far different from what the person standing next to you is seeing, feeling.

And so it is with David Ortiz.

But perhaps some Yankees – and some of Big Papi’s teammates – viewed the entire scene from afar, wondering if their name will be the next released.

It’s the world in which the players now live.

It’s the world in which anyone who follows baseball now lives.

I hate all this pussyfooting. If a player took a supplement that “may or may not have contained steroids,” I view the issue in the same light as just doing the real drugs. It’s like finding a paper bag full of money hidden in a bush. You know that money is there under shaky circumstances, but you might take it anyway and walk away with an unexpected payday. Still, it’s not kosher. These players knew they were getting into some risky business when they walked into these “stores” or “doctor’s offices” and are willing to feign ignorance.

Find a picture of David Ortiz from the height of his career. Now look at Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez from theirs. Now go find a photo of Hank Aaron from any point of his career. Case closed.

If guys like David Ortiz really cared about “keeping it clean,” they would have made sure the substance didn’t contain a steroid. Whatever he was taking, it allowed him to put up bloated numbers that he’ll never again be able to replicate. To me, that’s evidence enough. I hope I’m proven wrong. Then again, like most real baseball fans, I take the last 15 years of the game with a grain of salt.

Hank Aaron never hit over 50 home runs in a season. However, he did hit 755 in his career, but none of them went over 500 ft. into impossible territory. I don’t think too much about the suspicion surrounding Ortiz because I already know the answer. None of those guys were for real.

David Ortiz addressed the media about his positive PED test from 2003 on Saturday and stated that he never buys or uses steroids.

From ESPN.com:

“I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter — legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter — but I never buy steroids or use steroids,” Ortiz said during a news conference that began about 3½ hours before his Boston Red Sox played the New York Yankees.

“I never thought that buying supplements and vitamins, it was going to hurt anybody’s feelings.”

If you replace “vitamins and supplements” with “flax seed oil,” then Ortiz essentially did the same thing Bonds did in that he attributed the positive test results to over-the-counter supplements and not anabolic steroids.

This may sound like I’m defending Big Papi, but maybe he really did take an over-the-counter supplement or something like Androstenedione, which is banned now, but wasn’t in 2003. Some people like to group supplements like testosterone boosters in with anabolic steroids and there is a massive difference between the two in terms of the effect they can have on your body. We don’t know what Ortiz took, so it’s not really fair to speculate until more details come out (if they ever do, that is).

It’s not surprising that Ortiz didn’t reveal much in the press conference. Don’t forget that these test results were supposed to be confidential and therefore Ortiz was probably legally bound from providing too much detail.

That said, it would have been nice if he admitted what he took, especially if he’s telling the truth about never taking steroids. He could have gotten on the podium and said, “I took Supplement X, Y and Z” and at least gained a little respect from his detractors. But since he didn’t reveal anything, many fans will go onto believe that he disgraced the game by cheating.

The sad part is that we may never know what these guys took.

According to an article by the Boston Globe, Red Sox DH David Ortiz (along with MLB Players Association director Michael Weiner) is expected to address the media over the weekend about testing positive for PEDs in 2003.

“We’re going to, like I said, we’re trying to figure things out and move on,’’ Ortiz said. “I’m not going to keep this in my head my whole career. It’s not like I have 10 years left. It’s the kind of situation that you get frustration.

“I’m gonna let you guys know what I’ve got. Period.’’

If Ortiz thinks he can’t tarnish his image more than he already has, he’s wrong. When he eventually talks to the media, he should be honest and forthright about what he took or at the very least, admit that he did take a banned substance and that he was wrong. If he denies anything or tries to act like he was unaware of what he was taking, then the public is going to crucify him.

Fans aren’t going to forget that he tested positive for PEDs, but they would probably be more willing to forgive him if he admitted that he did take something and threw himself at the mercy of the public. He should take a page out of Andy Pettitte and Jason Giami’s book and just be honest about the entire situation because after all, he’s already been caught.

Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe throws out an intriguing question about Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and what his next step is after reports surfaced that he tested positive for PEDs in 2003.

Here are the questions we all need to ask: Will anything short of a full admission from Ortiz be enough to satisfy those of us who generally are cursed with cynicism? Or is he simply doomed, regardless of what happened, because there are certain things we need to hear?

Fans don’t appreciate being lied to, so there will still be a ton of people who will forever be upset with Big Papi no matter what he does or doesn’t admit to. But fans are also forgiving in nature as long as an athlete is honest and completely upfront with his omission.

Take Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi and to a lesser extent, Bronson Arroyo (who recently admitted to using androstenedione and amphetamines before they were both banned in 2006) for example. All three of those players admitted that they had taken PEDs in the past, apologized for it and immediately showed regret for what they had done. Do you hear any of their names being mentioned with the likes of Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Ortiz or Ramirez? Nope.

If Big Papi comes out and completely admits to what he did, then fans will be less forgiving. Granted, we’re not going to just forget that he ever took PEDs, but we’ll certainly be more forgiving of him when we throw stones at the players who did cheat.