So I am fairly new but have been chatting with a number of experienced owners. Most stress the importance of building a strong defensive group up the middle, sometimes sacrificing offense for strong defense in the right positions. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Is SS the most important defensive position? What numbers do folks look for as a minimum? What about second base? I'm assuming range is key for CF but anything else to really focus on building?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated, I have heard enough to know that building a defensive matrix is key. Thanks for any thoughts.

Go to the edit rosters page and click on anyone's defensive position and you will see the optimal defensive ratings for each position. That gives a good base.

You can use google's advanced search to search these forums for specific topics. There's lots of threads with good info. Here is a thread with a decent summary to get you started.

Defense will help/hurt your pitching. If you have guys getting + plays, they're taking hits off the board. Leads to less pitches required. Errors and - plays requires more pitches. So the guy you think should be able to give you 7 innings ends up giving you 6. And you have to build a bullpen capable of more work.

As a general rule, I want 85 across the board at SS and at least 85 range in CF. You can pick up a lot of + plays in LF with a 82/62 R/G that is essentially a failed CF. I sometimes skimp on D at 3B/RF because they get the least chances in the IF/OF, respectively.

Thanks for the tip on google's advanced search feature and for all of the other comments. This is very helpful.