Who's The Best Pitcher in Baseball? Part 1: Reliability

Justin Verlander threw what I believe to be the best game of his career last night against the Indians (yes, more impressive than both no-hitters) in a complete game 2-hitter.  Verlander threw 117 pitches, striking out 12 and carrying a no-hitter into the 8th inning only to be broken up by a weak line drive into center field by SS Orlando Cabrera.  82 of his 117 pitches were strikes (70%!), and he constantly got ahead of the count on hitters.  He threw his curve in every count, whether as a finishing punch to seemingly every hitter, or to completely dumbfound and confuse hitters by opening an at-bat with the 78 MPH breaking ball.  Verlander finally, by his own admission, isn't just trying to throw past hitters and getting frustrated when they make contact, he's pitching strategically and with a level head.  With his newfound swagger and strategy, can JV truly claim to be one of the best pitchers in baseball yet?  I investigate this by trying to compose a top-5 list, based on numerous statistical measures.

There will be numerous parts of this series, the first being this post, exploring the reliability that each pitcher provides their respective team every fifth day, and how efficient they are while doing so.