I've found that I spend less cash buying $1000 late round picks (instead of $4000 for a second rounder) to trade in for first rounders. Obviously, it depends on your luck with not getting 1 stars out of those late round picks. But, I would say overall I spend less. You are going to have to open more, but it's cheaper that way as the late rounders are 4x less expensive.
Don't buy picks until all of your upgrades are at 15 (and then you can only use gold). The players will come, trust me, and then you'll get sick of Shelby Miller ending up on your team for the 10,000th time
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If you're building a team around 1st round picks, you're gonna have a bad time.