Chris Albright is a much better comparison for Zardes to RB than Zusi. Chrissy was originally an attacker/winger who couldn't find a scoring touch and ended up being a fine attacking RB and MLS Best 11 for us. If Zardes could reach that level...
That's not how it works. For example, Jack McBean signed a new contract and is still HG. It's purely a function of whether they're on the off-budget roster. It might make sense to move a HG to your senior roster even if they hadn't signed a new contract or a HG player might sign a new contract and remain on the off-budget roster. There's a little more to it (regarding the HG budget) but essentially it's a case of whether they're on the senior roster or not. We know Gyasi is on the senior roster because we had to protect him in the expansion draft last year.
I didn't make myself clear : is he on the senior roster because of his big salary (not necessary his new contract)? You can't pay HG players all the money you want right?
Pretty much. I'm a little unclear on the application of TAM as it relates to potential off-budget homegrown players but in this instance "he's making too much" is relatively accurate.