Sometimes an outsider sees things that those too close to the situation cannot. With that in mind, allow a lifelong Cubs fan to give the Cardinals some advice.

Trade Albert Pujols. Do it now.

At the moment, the Cardinals can get something for him. That will soon change. In 2012, he will be a free agent. He will be gone. The Cardinals will get nothing.

Sixteen months from now, it won't be LeBron James hosting a special on ESPN to announce his plans. It will be Pujols, and his plans will not include St. Louis. Does Cardinal Nation want to go through that?

In your hearts, you know he'll leave. There is no way Bill DeWitt will allow the team to re-sign Pujols. It would mean overpaying him. That is the nature of the contract an established star demands. A team is not signing a young player for what he is going to do in the future. A team is signing an older player to a long-term contract based on what he did in his prime.

That is a formula for overpaying.

In the case of Pujols, he will have to be overpaid dramatically. He has been one of the best players ever for the past several years, but already, his production is beginning to slide. My colleague Bernie Miklasz cited some numbers in a column in late May: "His slugging percentage since last July 18 is .551, which is pretty good, but it just isn't Pujols. Before last July 18, Pujols' career slugging percentage was .631. So we've seen an 80-point drop in his slugging and a fairly dramatic decrease in his home run ratio."

Perhaps Pujols has raised his numbers since — I don't keep track of these things — but the trend line is clear.

Pujols will be 32 years old for the 2012 season. Whoever signs him will be paying him based on numbers he almost certainly will not be able to duplicate.

But this is baseball, and some teams are happy to overpay stars. The Yankees, for instance. Maybe the Mets, the Red Sox, the Dodgers or even the Cubs. But the Cardinals? They foolishly bid against themselves and overpaid for Matt Holliday last season. One overpaid slugger per mid-market team. It's an unwritten rule.

So Pujols will be gone.

How about waiting until next year to trade him? That won't work. He's going to want to test the free agency market in 2012, and that will diminish his value in 2011. Why give the Cardinals anything worthwhile for a rental?

So trade him now. A team would have him for a season and a half. Perhaps if it's a team that's ready to empty the vault, that team might think it could sign him to a long-term deal. So the Cardinals can still get value for him. But the window of opportunity is beginning to close.

There are other considerations, too. The writers who follow the Cardinals complain about the lack of leadership in the clubhouse. Some of that can be attributed to Pujols. After all, he is clearly the best player on the team and one of the more senior members — and from everything I can tell, he is a first-class person — but he is apparently not a rah-rah type guy. But who else has the stature to take on that role? As long as Pujols is the alpha dog, don't expect anybody else to start barking.

Then, too, bad feelings seem to exist between Pujols and manager Tony La Russa. They had a public spat in May when Ryan Ludwick was thrown out while following orders to try to steal second with Pujols at the plate.

More recently, I wondered if La Russa was sending a message when he came out in favor of the Arizona immigration law. I seldom pay attention to celebrities who talk about politics, but I thought it awfully odd that a baseball manager whose best player is a Latino would announce his support for the controversial law. Pujols was asked about the law the same day and had a terse "no comment." What's going on?

Maybe La Russa, a West Coast sophisticate, is upset that Pujols contributed money to the Christian rock station that bought the radio signal that used to belong to the city's only classical music station.

But all that hardly matters. If the Cardinals want to avoid a huge distraction next year and get something while they can, the team has to trade Pujols now.

Who could they get?

Carlos Zambrano is a possibility.

The Cardinals need pitching. Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse are on the disabled list and might never come back. It remains to be seen how rookie Jaime Garcia will do his second time around the league. Pitching coach Dave Duncan might be the guy who finally gets Zambrano to fulfill his promise.

Plus, Zambrano brings a fiery presence to a laid-back clubhouse.

Pujols for Zambrano. It makes a lot more sense than hiring Mark McGwire as a hitting coach.

Trust me on this, Cardinals fans. You're too close to the situation to see it clearly.