Thanks for the good discussion!
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Originally Posted by chazzycat
Yeah, you could probably skimp a bit on the corner defense. But the question is, to what extent. In general third base is really confusing to me...I have a hard time judging defense there. I was expecting Chapman to be great, but he's actually put up a negative ZR over two full seasons...so who knows. I do agree that up the middle (SS/2B) is the most important. Elite defenders like Tulo & Frey regularly put up +20 to +30 ZR seasons for me, which I've never seen any 3B come close to. For first base, I think with all those grounders, you want at least a competent fielder. It's still first base, I wouldn't prioritize it that strongly, but at least try to get a decent error rating.
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I will have to look at my defense-first team and see what kind of ZR the 3B is putting up. Last year I think I used Cirillo about half the year and then trained Bowa there so I might have some useful data.
(about the need for good defense at C and CF)
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This is a good question I've been wondering about a lot myself. I have been really curious to see how badly Kyle Schwarber's defense would affect my team, but so far, it just hasn't really. He played 2 full seasons with no C rating at all, but his ZR was just -7 and catcher ERA 3.15. Losing 7 runs over the course of two seasons is really not a deal-breaker at all, and they were easily outweighed by his contributions with the bat.
My theory on that, is catcher rating mostly affects walks & strikeouts (framing) as well as the running game. But my pitching staff is all low-stuff high-control guys, meaning both my strikeouts and walks are very low anyway. Also, with my park factors, running is discouraged because of how easy it is to hit homers. So I think between these factors, it's about the best possible situation to use a bat-first catcher.
I might need to change this approach at some point as I move up, but for now, I am happy with the way things are working out.
As far as center field goes, it's a similar situation. In general I always try go get an elite defender there, but for this team it's really not as important. The pitching staff barely gives up flyballs which really does minimize the impact of tossing average fielders out there. My very average-fielding platoon of Ian Happ/Aaron Hicks has started about 300 games in CF, with a combined ZR of just -2.6. So again, losing just above 1 run per season due to defense, is really just not worth worrying about. It's their offense that is more the problem actually. Eventually, the end-game card for CF is Mike Trout, who will solve both problems 
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I didn't even know I could see Catcher ERA as a stat - I'll have to see what my guys are providing there! And your point about CF not being *as* important due to the relative lack of flyballs is a very good one.
I think given this discussion I'd be willing to go with moderate defense at C and CF, and will keep an eye on error rating at 1B.