awesome: I've never liked intentional walks. While checking out your post's information I came across a link to a book about various strategies employed in baseball called "The Book". I'll have to see about acquiring it.
There's pros and cons to putting someone on base. It certainly gives the batter that's after the guy that receives the intentional walk incentive to get a hit. They're showing him up by saying they'd rather pitch to him than the guy they walked. And if he does get a hit, the guy that was intentionally walked is an extra man on base.

I've never seen a wild pitch during an intentional walk, but I've seen a couple of wild throws that almost got past the catcher.