I was looking around for Washington Nationals news when I came across this rumor on mlbtraderumors.com from 11/15/07...which states:

          "... the Padres have their eye on Jim Edmonds and Ryan
          Church as center field options. The Padres would expect
          Edmonds to be a salary dump and the Cards to throw in
          some cash.  Meanwhile Jim Bowden has a high asking  
          price for Church."

      In the article mlbtraderumors.com sites by Staff Writer Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune entitled, "Padres talk extension with Peavy as Cy awaits," Krasovic notes that:

            "The Nationals' Ryan Church, a corner outfielder who has
            appeared in 114 games in center, also is on the Padres'
            radar, but the Nationals want a lot in return."

(note- ed-"I hate using possessive apostrophes with team names.")

     Washington GM Jim Bowden isn't going to part with his players for anything less the MLB-ready pitching or outfield talent by most accounts, as the Nationals have been widely reported to have asked for some combination of Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber, Carlos Gomez or Lastings Milledge from the Mets, and a pair of pitchers from the Red Sox system, with the names Clay Buckholz, Craig Hansen and Michael Bowden being bandied about in the press in previous trade rumors.

     In mlb.com's Padres writer Corey Brock's article, "Padres enjoy shopping at trade market," Mr. Brock quotes San Diego GM Kevin Towers, who states that, "I would say outfield is probably No. 1 [priority]..." but the article goes on to list the usual free agent suspects, two interesting trade possibilities and one wild card option the Padres are looking at to replace the departing Mike Cameron in center field...

     ...free agents Andruw Jones, Aaron Rowand, Kenny Lofton, and trade targets like Boston's Coco Crisp, the Angels Reggie Willits, and even Japanese outfielder Kusuke Fukudome, a 30-year old veteran looking to make the move to MLB...But no mention of the Padres interest in Ryan Church anywhere in the article...

     ...other Nationals' trade rumors to investigate elsewhere on mlbtraderumors.com...from 11/8/07:

          "The Nationals might be able to get something good for
           outfielder Ryan Church. In general, Jim Bowden desires a
           young MLB-ready starter like Kevin Mulvey or Kevin
           Slowey."

     No article is cited as a source, so I Googled "Nationals interested in Mulvey, Slowey," and found the following...

    ...Ken Rosenthal at FOXsports.com, who writes, in an article entitled, "Cabrera's status a hot topic at meetings" that the Nationals:

          "...would like to trade for another young, major league-
          ready starter -- and the Mets' Kevin Mulvey and Twins'
          Kevin Slowey both fit that description."

     ...a great article at the Nationals Farm Authority mentions the same Ken Rosenthal article and THOROUGHLY breaks down the Mets' and Twins' prospects mentioned...

http://farmauthority.dcsportsnet.com/2007/11/08/adding-arms/

     ...and for the Mets perspective on the rumors? I found a post at http://amazinfuture.wordpress.com/, where the same Ken Rosenthal article is mentioned, and the writer, cyclonesnation, concludes:

           "I would not deal Mulvey for Cordero. Church is
           somewhat more enticing, but unless I am a team like the
           Twins looking to fill a void in CF, I would not overpay for
           him, let alone a team like the Mets, who already have
           Beltran-Alou-Milledge-Gomez-Chavez under contract for
           2007."

     Is Washington GM Jim Bowden asking for too much in return from other MLB teams?

     The Nationals GM said it best himself in a Barry Svrluga article at washingtonpost.com after last season's trade deadline passed without Bowden trading Church, Chad Cordero or Jon Rauch. In the article, "No-trade postmortem: Bowden explains" Mr Svrluga quotes the GM who does explain:

          "'I'm not going to take players that can't help the
          Washington Nationals win at the big league level. So if
          they're going to criticize me, I'd much rather have them
          criticize me for asking for too much than asking for too
          little."

     Why do I get the feeling Ryan Church will be in center and Chad Cordero will still be closing for the Nationals when the team opens it's new stadium in April of '08?

*LINKS TO ALL THE TRADE TALK*

mlbtraderumors.com mention of Padres interest in Ryan Church:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/11/padres-look-to-.html

mlbtraderumors.com mention of GM Jim Bowden's interest in Kevin Mulvey and Kevin Slowey:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/11/rosenthals-la-1.html

San Diego Union-Tribune's Tom Krasovic's article "Padres talk extension with Peavy as Cy awaits":

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/padres/20071115-9999-1s15peavy.html

sandiego.padres.mlb.com's Corey Brock's article, "Padres enjoy shopping at trade market":

http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071106&content_id=2293997&vkey=news_sd &fext=.jsp&c_id=sd

Ken Rosenthal's Foxsports.com article, "Cabrera's status a hot topic at meetings":

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7421808

Barry Svrluga's washingtonpost.com article, "No-trade postmortem: Bowden explains":

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2007/07/notrade_post_mortem_bowden_exp.html