In his excellent online journal, Scott Lauber of Wilmington's News-Journal asks his readers who they would rather see get the bulk of playing time at third base, Wes Helms or Abe Nunez.
Personally, I would choose neither and suggest that Greg Dobbs should be the one to stand next to the third sack.
Through 53 plate appearances in 32 games with the Phillies this season, Dobbs is hitting .313/.358/.542, which translates into an OPS+ of 132 -- in other words, after accounting for park factors, Dobbs his hitting 32% better than the average National League hitter. Helms and Nunez on the other hand have OPS+ of 77 and 99, respectively (no, that's not a misprint, Nunez is out-hitting Wes Helms).
Your next question might be, "OK, that's all well and good, but can he play defense?" As is always the case, questions of defensive ability are harder to answer than those of offensive ability, but, one can make a case that Dobbs will do just fine, particularly if he continues to hit this way. It's probably safe to say that while his range is better than Helms', it's probably not as good as Nunez's. But, Dobbs has logged 128 1/3 innings at third base in his career, mostly with the Mariners, and has a .949 fielding percentage, which isn't a huge drop-off from the .955 fielding percentage Nunez sports in 1,539 innings at third base.
At the very least, Charlie Manuel and the Phillies should ride Dobbs hot bat until it cools, if it ever does.
"Free Greg Dobbs, Free Greg Dobbs!"
