"When David Ortiz says Adrian Gonzalez has more confidence than Dustin Pedroia and has as much hitting intelligence as Manny Ramirez, that assessment goes a long way toward understanding why Gonzalez — and even Ortiz to a degree — has taken off with the Red Sox this season and not looked back.

Entering the prime of his career, surrounded by a lineup of elite hitters the likes of which he never had in San Diego with the Padres and playing at a ballpark that suits what Ortiz describes as a "perfect swing," Gonzalez is flourishing as a Red Sox.

And from the perspective of Ortiz, a nine-year veteran of the team and Gonzalez' elder by six years, the slugging first baseman is already a leader, a teacher and an inspiration in the clubhouse.

If it sounds as though Gonzalez has already left a deep impression on Ortiz, it's because he has.

"We go back and forth but (expletive), I'm getting more ideas from him than he gets from me,'' Ortiz said of Gonzalez. "I ask him every day, I'm like, 'Hey, what you got?' and he gives me the whole information.''

The way Gonzalez breaks down and digests the data from scouting reports and video analysis of pitchers facing him or other left-handed hitters such as Ortiz or Mark Teixeira is, as Big Papi puts it, "ridiculous."

"I don't even go to the video anymore," Ortiz said. "I ask him, and I swear to God, everything he tells me is the same thing that happens in the game. It's unbelievable. He is extremely smart. Extremely. In this game, if you want to be that caliber of pitching, you have to study pitching. I've been doing that my whole life, studying pitchers but he gives me good ideas — ideas that you might think of but you're kind of in between because it's not what you're looking for but when you put it in play, he's right on.''"