Twenty years ago, the Chicago Cubs had a young pitcher like Phil Hughes.

Like Mr. Hughes, he was a first-round draft pick from Southern California. And like Mr. Hughes, he was a hard-throwing right-hander with seemingly boundless potential, a future ace.

Bullpen coach Mike Harkey, above, is determined to not let the Yankees' Phil Hughes suffer from the overuse that 20 years ago saw him throw 288 pitches in back-to-back starts. European Pressphoto Agency

His name was Mike Harkey. And he is now an example of what the Yankees are trying to avoid with Mr. Hughes.

Mr. Harkey, the Yankees' bullpen coach, was injured early and often during his eight-year major-league career and never lived up to expectations.

Some of his injuries had nothing to do with his workload. With others, it is impossible to know for sure. But 20 years later, this much is certain:



"When you think about it, you often wonder, was that the cause of it?" said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, the Cubs' catcher from 1989 to 1992. "The four-man rotation or the 160 pitches?"

Regardless of the answer, the Yankees are taking no such chances with Mr. Hughes, who will start Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium. They skipped his last turn in the rotation to keep his season innings total down, a move that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.

There were no Joba Rules then, or anything remotely like them. There was little emphasis on the pitch counts and innings totals of young pitchers. It was a different era.

"Back then, we threw 130, 140 pitches," Mr. Harkey said. "If the manager or pitching coach asked you how you felt, you'd say, 'I feel fine.'"

Phil Hughes Getty Images

Mr. Harkey is not often mentioned in the argument for protecting young pitchers' arms. His workload was not extreme for the time he pitched in and he also had serious knee injuries, including one he suffered while attempting a cartwheel in the outfield before a game in September 1992.

He is not Kerry Wood, whose heavy workload as a Cubs rookie in 1998 was blamed for derailing his career. But Mr. Harkey nonetheless offers a cautionary tale for the Yankees.

There wasn't a more sought after college player in the 1987 draft than Mr. Harkey, who pitched at Cal State Fullerton. The Seattle Mariners nearly took him first overall, but opted instead for Ken Griffey Jr. The Cubs took Mr. Harkey with the fourth overall pick.

Mr. Girardi, who played with Mr. Harkey in the minors and was his roommate at one point, said he had an effective fastball-changeup repertoire, with some sliders mixed in. But he couldn't stay healthy.

He missed the start of the 1989 season with what was called shoulder tendinitis and then suffered a season-ending knee injury while rehabbing.

In 1990, he lived up to his promise, finishing 12-6 with a 3.26 ERA. The Sporting News named him National League Rookie of the Year.

But the health of his shoulder, which was already fragile, deteriorated along the way. What was diagnosed as tendinitis in September turned into torn cartilage that required season-ending surgery the following May.

Mr. Harkey said he isn't sure to what extent his workload was a factor. He doesn't even remember the day he threw 160 pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals.

"In hindsight, it's just too hard to predict how things might have been different," he said. "I thought they did protect me."

Still, in the 20 years since Mr. Harkey's 160-pitch effort, not a single pitcher under the age of 26 has been allowed to throw that many pitches in a game.

The only pitchers of any age to throw 160 or more pitches in a game since then—Roger Clemens, David Cone, Randy Johnson and Tim Wakefield —all did so between 1990 and 1997, according to Stats Inc.

The Yankees would sooner let Mr. Hughes go bungee jumping than let him throw 160 pitches.

And while limiting his workload does not guarantee that he will remain healthy, the idea is to improve his chances of doing so.

"You look at Kerry Wood and the arm surgery that he went through," Mr. Girardi said. "There's a number of guys you could look at and say, 'This is what we don't want to happen.'"

One just happens to work for him.