Good stuff. I think most pitchers would prefer to pitch to every hitter rather than issue an intentional walk, but they’re at the mercy of their managers and have no choice but to intentionally walk a batter when commanded to do so. I’d be interested to know how many times a pitcher asked his manager if he could intentionally walk a batter, though. You hear stories about managers coming to the mound and asking a pitcher how he wants to approach the next batter, and invariably said pitcher insists he wants to “go after” the hitter. I wonder how many times a pitcher said, “Skip, would it be okay if I just intentionally walked him?” :-)