Well, first of all, I'll go ahead and say I expect there to be a fair amount of discourse on this. At first I was simply trying to put a silver lining on our division rival getting one of the biggest pitchers in the game, but as it has already been much discussed here and on The Good Phight, this situation may already have a silver lining for Braves fans, with all the talent Philly is shipping out.

My main question going into my research on the matter was "How good has Halladay been in his career at Citizens Bank Park?" The answer to that is much too small a sample size to give any accurate measure. In Halladay's lone appearance at CBP, he went 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, actually being credited with a hold. So, not much there, but let's look a little further:

Halladay's career line: 148-76. 3.43 ERA/1.20 WHIP/.255 BAA. Not too shabby at all. Even when you take away the fact that Halladay is 38-10 in his career against the Yankees and Orioles, the 110-66 record that remains is still awesome. However, the two teams he has most dominated in his career are now simply teams he will face at most twice per season. What has he done in his career against the NL East? Let's take a look:

Vs. The Braves - (1-0) 10 2/3 IP (one start) 7 hits, 8 strikeouts and a dinger for a 0.84 ERA. Small sample size, but yikes.

Vs. The Mets - (2-2) 24 1/3 IP, 34 hits against 15 strikeouts, four dingers and a 5.55 ERA. And they've hit .337 off him.

Vs. The Fish - (0-1) 9 IP (two starts) 13 hits to 7 strikeouts, a 5.00 ERA and a .371 BAA.

Vs. The Natinals - (5-1) 59 2/3 IP, 50 hits to 44 strikeouts and a 2.56 ERA. Way to take it out on the little guys.

Varying sample sizes with varying results to say the least, but let's look at some more numbers. In Halladay's career at The Rogers Centre, he has gone 83-34 with a 3.23 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and .243 BAA. He's no slouch on the road, but there is a noticeable difference away from the dome, where he is 65-42 with a 3.64 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and .267 BAA. 30 of his 49 complete games and 10 of his 15 shutouts have come at The Rogers Centre. That's not exactly Matt Holliday and Coors Field, but it's something nonetheless. His turf/grass splits are also indicative of at least some difference in quality. On turf, both in Toronto and elsewhere, Halladay has compiled a career line of 98-39 with a 3.21 ERA, 1.12 WHIP & .245 BAA. On grass, he's 50-37 with a 3.76 ERA, 1.31 WHIP & .269 BAA. On grass, Halladay walks slightly less than one batter more per 9 IP than on turf, while striking out nearly one fewer.

This, not to mention that the ball jumps a bit more out at Citizen's Bank than The Rogers Centre, Halladay's tenure in Philly at least seems to have some of the rocky potential that we Braves fans could hope for. At the very least, we could hope for some adjustment period of him learning to pitch in the little league stadium he just signed on for. Don't think they won't boo you, Roy. Because they will. And they have batteries. Which they can throw harder than Jamie Moyer.