When did you actually start acknoledging Adrian Gonzalez as one of the top players in the game.?

I've been watching Adrian Gonalez since 3 4 years ago and i was like wow. This guy has talent. He was batting consistently at Petco Park. hitting 30 plus homeruns with .280 avg and 90 RBIs consistently. This with the low batting stadium and low prtoection of his teamates. He had one of the highest if not the highest walks and OBP. he got intentional walked at a ridiculous rate and the few times he did get pitches to hit he had noone on base. WOW. This is coming as a dbacks fan who oesnt like the rival padres but i knew Adrian Gonzale had the talent. now with Boston im starting to see he's getting a lot more attention. he went from bench in the allstar games to hitting 3rd starting. I don't know, to me I think on most ppl's opinion he used to be ranked like in top 20 but now is ranked as like in the top 5 players. Is it just me or did any bdy else notice. The question is when did you actually start hearin his name and knowing that with a good team he is the best 1stbasemen in the game on back of pujols.